With the caveat that “no ethical lawyer will ever guarantee future results” Conservation Law Foundation Senior Attorney Jerry Elmer predicted that “on June 25th it is likely but not certain that [Invenergy’s power plant] permit will be denied. I think [the EFSB will] deny it on both the need and the unacceptable environmental harm.”

Elmer was speaking to a crowd of about 50 people at the Cranston Public Library on Friday, explaining what he believes the future holds for the four year long Energy Facilities Siting Board permitting process. The case under discussion concerns Invenergy’s application to build a $1 billion fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant in the midst of the irreplaceable forests of Burrillville.

To be permitted, Invenergy must prove three things: that the proposed power plant is needed to keep the lights on in New England, that the plant is cost-justified, and that the plant will not cause irreparable harm to the environment.

The Invenergy hearing is easily the longest permitting process in the history of the EFSB. “The final hearing in this case, the trial if you will, took a year,” said Elmer. “There were 45 witnesses, 37 of whom pre-filed volumes of testimonies, some of those witnesses as many as five volumes of testimony. There were 30 non-consecutive days of hearing, each one produced a transcript of hundreds of pages… In addition to all of that stuff there were hundreds and hundreds of exhibits introduced. To take but one example: On the last day, the last day of the hearing, April 2, Invenergy introduced two new exhibits, one of which ran to 1000 pages.”

Elmer gave a nice shout out to this website during his remarks. “Our brief, Invenergy’s brief, Burillville’s brief, they’re all available on the EFSB website, but better than that, the briefs are all available on the Uprise RI website, together with Steve Ahlquist‘s look at and analysis of those briefs.”

Here are the links:

• CLF presents its final arguments to the EFSB against the proposed Invenergy power plant
• Invenergy’s final argument to the EFSB is kind of a mess…
• Burrillville: Invenergy power plant is unneeded and will cause unacceptable environmental harm

“I think our chances of winning went up in a significant way when those briefs were filed,” said Elmer. “Invenergy’s brief, except for a passing mention about the ISO on page 10, somehow completely omitted mentioning ISO New England, the entity regulated by the federal government, that runs the New England electricity grid and determines whether plants are or are not needed.

“Astonishingly, Invenergy tried to say, in its closing brief, that it is the Rhode Island Division of Planning that does that planning for the six state New England electricity grid. There are probably two things wrong with Invenergy’s argument. One is that one of the members of the EFSB, Meredith Brady, works for the Division of Planning. They’re trying to tell her that the Division of Planning does the planning for the six state electricity grid? Well, she knows better.

“Perhaps even more to the point, as those of you who have been to the hearings have seen, Invenergy has spent four years putting in evidence about the ISO’s need for the plant. So by saying at this point that we’re not going to look to the ISO, Invenergy must be assuming that three EFSB board members haven’t been here for four years of hearings. But they have been there. They know what evidence Invenergy has put in.”

Elmer took questions from the audience for about an hour. Asked if the members of the EFSB, Chair Margaret Curran and boardmembers Janet Coit and Meredith Brady, could be trusted to render a fair verdict, given Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo’s strong support for the project and the nature of politics in Rhode Island, Elmer’s answer was unequivocal.

“Yes,” said Elmer. “Meg Curran was the United States Attorney who sent Buddy Cianci to federal prison for five years for turning City Hall into a corrupt racketeering enterprise. Meg Curran doesn’t like improper things.

“Janet Coit came to DEM from The Nature Conservancy where CLF’s witness came from. In fact, CLF’s witness on biodiversity issues at the EFSB, Scott Cummings, was hired by Janet Coit when Janet was the executive director of The Nature Conservancy office in Rhode Island.

“Part of my considered opinion that we’re likely to win is based on the nature of the case that has been put in and the background knowledge and experience and integrity of the EFSB members,” said Elmer.

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