Local leaders petition PUC to approve Laidlaw power agreement
By Barbara Tetreault
Feb 22, 2011 12:00 am
BERLIN – Thirty-one top political and business leaders in the valley have signed a petition asking the N.H. Public Utilities Commission to approve without delay the power purchase agreement between Public Service of N.H. and Laidlaw Berlin BioPower.
The PUC concluded five days of hearings earlier this month on the proposed 20-year contract, and parties had until Feb. 14 to submit written closing arguments. No date for deliberations has been released yet.
The list includes Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier, Gorham select board chair Paul Robitaille, city councilors Mark Evans, Robert Danderson, and Lucie Remillard, all three county commissioners, Rep. Robert Theberge, police commissioners Tony Urban and Jerry Nault, and Gorham town director of finance Denise Vallee.
On the business side, the list includes Isaacson Structural Steel president Arnold Hanson and senior vice president Steve Griffin, Scott Labnon of the Town and Country Motor Inn, Barry Kelley of White Mountain Lumber, Robert Chapman of Chapman Scrap Metal, Richard Labonville of Labonville Inc., Rich Fournier of Cross Machines, Michael Saladino of La Bottega Saladino, Cascade mill manager Willis Blevins, and developer Paul Cusson.
Other signers include Northern Forest Heritage Park director Dick Huot, Androscoggin Valley Hospital CEO Russ Keene and Human Resources vice president Jim Wheeler, Tri-County CAP economic development director Max Makaitis, chamber of commerce president Robbie Munce, AVER chair Kathleen Kelley, United Way executive director Rolanda Duchesne, Berlin Main Street Program chair Sylvia Poulin, and USW Local 75 president Leo Lozier and board member Edward DeBlois.
Laidlaw is seeking to construct a 70-megawatt biomass plant on the former pulp mill site. It has obtained a certificate to construct and operate the facility from the state Site Evaluation Commission. That certificate is conditional on an approved power purchase agreement.
Laidlaw has said it will employ 4o people directly and create hundreds of indirect jobs in the forest industry. It estimates it will become the city's larget taxpayer. Opposition to the power agreement has come from a group of small biomass plants who argue they have not be able to get the same agreement from PSNH. The state Office of the Consumer Advocate opposed the agreement, arguing it will cost ratepayers an additional $144 million over the life of the contract.
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