Replies to post #84517 on Laidlaw Energy Group, Inc.(fka LLEG)

[purplemountain]

Spencer is reporting what others are saying.

He may agree (and I suspect he does), but he is an intervenor, not an expert. Experts hired by some opposing parties - as well as the PUC staff and OCA - have raised issues. PSNH and their experts have countered these issues.

The outsome of the dueling experts will be the PUC hearings, not what Spence thinks or this board thinks or some mystery company that isn't even willing to lend its name to a press release.

While I know he is skewed and biased, I appreciate Spence sharing info that the rest of us don't (yet) have access to.

[spencerforhire]

Tap, There are so many north country existing biomass plants that PSNH could choose to offer PPA's to that their very reluctance to do so brings into question PSNH's interest in NH's 2025 initiative. All totaled these plants comprise significantly more infrastructure, Mega Watts, jobs and tax base than Laidlaw ever could. Their closure isn't so much a threat being made by them; it is a major risk being made by a PPA from hell that quite frankly has been ripped apart at the state level to a point of very little acceptance within the major terms. So why else would experts for the PUC state in testimony that the risk is higher than the benefit unless they thought "Laidlaw is essentially bad for the NH economy.", as you state.

Additionally, Berlin has an infusion of millions of dollars coming to the north country and hundreds upon hundreds of professional jobs due to arrive this spring and summer. Another project north of Berlin is bringing tens of millions beginning Feb. 1, 2011 and many construction jobs. This influx has nothing to do with Laidlaw or The Burgess mill site. Area politicians are not touting these major influxes in an effort to woe the state into thinking we're going bankrupt. I will cover this at the final hearing with statistical data. This dire straits approach to Laidlaw being the saving grace of Berlin is the furthest thing from the truth, and could be the death of significant north country biomass infrastructure already in place.

The PPA passes the buck squarely onto the back of the rate payer at a significantly higher rate than what at least one competitor is currently negotiating with other utility companies and has provided as testimony. The huge difference is that Laidlaw's PPA is some 18% higher than a GREENFIELD project, and Laidlaw presumably had a 100 million dollar infrastructure head start. The PUC experts have sniffed out something fishy and apparently the boys at PSNH and Berlin Biopower don't want to share some of that fish with the rate payer. Aint gonna happen folks without a massive PPA change in my opinion. As I stated many weeks ago, if the PPA takes a significant drop in overmarket price, and has no wood price ties to Schiller those are the significant remaining issues for me along with PSNH's currently illegal request to purchase. Other than those issues, Berlin has been well protected by massive contingencies required within the conditional acceptance by the SEC.