Brockton power plant backers lose chance to make case

BROCKTON - A long-awaited look at detailed plans for a 350-megawatt gas-fired power plant on Oak Hill Way was postponed Monday, after city finance officials refused to hear from experts provided by the plant's project manager.

After waiting for 90 minutes while city officials took agenda items out of order, Ron Kelly of Advanced Power seemed thrown. "This is quite a turn of events," he said quietly. "It never crossed my mind that you would not want to hear part of the story."

Among his experts was a former Harvard University public health professor, Peter A. Valberg, now a project consultant. The plant's backers had hoped the presentation would dispel rumors and fears about health hazards potentially caused by such a facility.

The Brockton Clean Energy project is a $350 million combined-cycle gas turbine development project from Boston-based Advanced Power of North America, a unit of German alternative energy facility developer Advanced Power AG. Proponents asked for equal time before the council after opponents made a presentation last month.

After inviting Kelly in the name of "open and fair government," Councilor at Large Todd Petti and Ward One Councilor Timothy Cruise were beside themselves as a roll-call vote prompted by Ward Six Councilor Michelle DuBois succeeded in blocking Valberg's and others' presentation.

"This is a disgrace," Petti said. "Everyone should have equal access. This evening doesn't mean this plant is going to be built."

In the end, the 15-minute Power Point presentation was postponed to Aug. 18, when the group meets again.

Monday's meeting would have been Advanced Power's first presentation before the Finance Committee. It followed a contentious debate earlier this month before the Conservation Commission for a wetlands review that was continued until Aug. 21. That gathering got heated upon word the Advanced Power plan calls for a 750,000-gallon oil storage tank along the Salisbury River.

The environmental commission is exploring whether the project meets the requirements of the state Wetlands Protection Act.

The Oak Hill Way site is near an electrical line connected to the New England power grid and is close to a natural gas pipeline that would supply fuel to the plant.

Advanced Power has focused its efforts on earning approval from the state Energy Facilities Siting Board to sidestep local permits. With more than 20 hearings logged, Kelly said the siting committee "has done its work, and is getting ready to write briefs."

The project has many opponents who worry about the plant's effect on nearby homes and schools.

First proposed by a Brockton-area development team in the late 1990s, the plant received state, federal, and local approvals seven years ago. When the market for new power plants slumped during a similar economic downturn, the project stagnated and all permits expired. The current backers have now revived it, with a hoped-for startup date of 2011.

Many residents fear noise, pollution, and other hazards even though officials have stressed clean energy and a stringent permitting process that they say leaves little room for error. The Brockton plant would provide enough electricity to supply about 230,000 homes.

As tempers flared Monday, Ward Two Councilor Michael Brady, a candidate for state representative, spoke sharply: "Most of us here on the council have publicly said we are against this proposal. We don't want this."

In frustration, Brady asked Kelly if there was anything the city could do to persuade Advanced Power to go elsewhere, recognizing that the company has a lot of money behind it.

Kelly didn't respond.

The clash came just weeks after a failed amendment to the state budget and the Green Energy Bill that would have banned power plants within a mile of certain areas, including residential neighborhoods and day-care centers.

It was championed by Brockton legislators and those in Walpole who are fighting a similar effort by Maryland-based Competitive Power Ventures to build a 580-megawatt gas-fired power plant on Industrial Road.

Walpole officials have refused to entertain CPV's application even as the company, which has an office in Braintree, says it is waiting to open dialogue.

At Monday's hearing in Brockton, a handful of tradesmen and union workers carried large blue signs into the ornate council chamber as they waited for the presentation to begin.

What's ironic, said Boilermakers Union Local 29 head Joe Birolini, is how officials spent the meeting's first hour discussing the need for a $3.59 million override to save the city's police and fire departments, library services and school district.

"We just heard about how the city's in trouble and now they have an opportunity," he said. "But, it seems like the council is against it." Besides adding to the city's tax base, he said, a power plant could provide jobs for local workers.

Michele Morgan Bolton can be reached at mmbolton@verizon.net.