Invenergy is scaling back the potential number of days it would run the proposed Burrillville power plant on oil as a backup.
This revised cap would reduce carbon emissions from the power plant by up to 30,000 tons each year, according to a company statement. Invenergy is amending its application with the state Energy Facility Siting Board.
But Jerry Elmer, an attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, is not convinced the revision is an improvement. Invenergy indicated in its application that it would burn oil for approximately five days.
“And just to be safe they asked for permission to burn oil 30 days a year,” said Elmer. “They were never going to burn oil 30 days a year. So cutting back to 15 [days] is still more than they expect to be burning oil.”
Elmer doesn’t consider this a meaningful change, as the power plant will be running all year long on fracked natural gas.
