Settlement Brings Salem Harbor Power Station in Massachusetts Closer to Redevelopment

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Salem Harbor Power Station, a coal-fired plant that began operating in 1952, is scheduled to shut down in June 2014. The power plant had a total of four operating units, of which only two are now operational. The first unit was operational in 1952, two additional coal-fired units were added in 1958, and an oil-fired unit was added in 1972. Footprint Power LLC (Bridgewater, New Jersey) bought the Salem Harbor Power Station in 2012. As a result of a prior lawsuit, the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts had ruled that Units 1 and 2 must be shut down by December 31, 2011 and Units 3 and 4 by June 1, 2014. Footprint Power has been trying to secure the redevelopment of the site for a new 674-megawatt (MW), combined-cycle power plant since the creation of the company and its initial interest in the Salem Harbor site in 2010.

The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), an environmental advocacy organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, announced last month that it had reached a settlement with Footprint Power safeguarding a date for future retirement of the proposed gas-fired power plant and compliance with conditions targeting the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and over-reliance on fossil fuels, including declining emissions limits that would be enforceable annually.

"At a time when many across the nation and the world see unrestricted growth of natural gas as a climate solution, this is the first settlement providing a pathway for new natural gas infrastructure to help enable rather than undermine a clean energy future," said CLF President John Kassel. "By recognizing the need to limit greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas-fired plants, this agreement reaffirms that natural gas and other fossil fuel projects must comply with state climate mandates, and has important implications for similar projects in the region and nationally."

Scott Silverstein, Footprint Power's chief operating officer, said "The challenge was how do we take a good project and make sure that the yardstick that it is going to be measured against is appropriate. The emissions reduction plan that we included there is that yardstick." Under the settlement, Footprint Power has agreed to meet decreasing annual emissions limits and have a retirement date of no later than January 1, 2050.

Footprint Power and CLF have asked the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board, which manages the siting of power plants, for approval of the settlement. The exact time of that decision is unknown at this point, but any significant delay could jeopardize Footprint Power's planned operational date of June 2016 for the new plant.

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