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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Environment - More on: State legislation re the financing of a coal-to-gas plant near Rockport close to passage

Updating this ILB entry from March 13th, concerning Senate Bill 423, which passed second reading last week and will be eligible for final passage as early as tomorrow (and which has not been amended in the second house, meaning that upon passage it will go directly to the governor), the Evansville Courier & Press has an editorial today urging caution. Some quotes:

To that end, a lot of honorable people in positions of influence in Indiana have enthusiastically climbed on board the proposed Indiana Gasification LLC project, so much so that Senate Bill 423 could easily pass the Indiana House this week. That could come as early as Monday, reports Courier & Press staff writer Mark Wilson.

Perhaps it is that lawmakers and others want to do something positive for the state and regional economy.

And so do we. Indeed, we might have gotten on board, as well, except for two particularly troubling requirements. The legislation would require that the state of Indiana — that is, Hoosier taxpayers — would have to buy the substitute gas produced at the plant. Then, the utilities would be required to buy it from the state.

That's because the utilities, Evansville-based Vectren and Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO), declined late last year after long negotiations to commit to buying the gas directly from the producer.

When the talks ended, Vectren and NIPSCO officials said that there is too much uncertainty over possible federal carbon regulations to commit to a 30-year purchase agreement.

So, if Vectren and NIPSCO are the experts in this field, and they don't want to commit to 30 years, why would the taxpayers want to do so? We, the taxpayers, know less about it than the energy providers.

Also, the developers have promised that if the plant does not achieve $400 million in savings over the 30 years from what natural gas would have cost, the company will turn the plant over to the state or pay the state $400 million.

Why would the state want the plant? And why are so many lawmakers apparently raring to go?

What the House will be voting on this week will be financing for the $2 billion plant that would make "pipeline quality" synthetic gas that Indiana customers could use for home heating.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 15, 2009 08:29 AM
Posted to Environment