Not rushing to beat carbon regulations; Wolverine plans for emissions standards
by Richard Lamb– Advance Editor
Wolverine is ahead of the curve when it comes to carbon emissions, say spokesmen for the utility cooperative. Ken Bradstreet, director of community and government affairs, and Craig A. Borr, executive vice president for the utility, said work is ongoing for the Wolverine Clean Energy Venture. The co-op is studying the feasibility of a base load, coal-fired plant and wind generation to meet the long-term power supply needs of its member-cooperatives. The air quality permit, filed with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, is currently under review. The 600-page document is the key to advancing to the next step of the process. When the DEQ will be completed with the review is anybody?s guess, but Wolverine hopes for its approval within months.
?THERE IS NO timeline in that where you say the agency needs to have it completed by a certain day. You truly don?t know. >From their prospective, they have other applicants as well, other permits that they are engaged on,? Borr said. ?They haven?t processed anything of this magnitude since the 1980?s and all of a sudden they have three of them to look at,? Bradstreet added. ?That is one part of the big puzzle. A very important part, and a very public part, obviously. But there is all sorts of other permits that we are working on or that we have got to work on that need to be completed as well. This is the most significant, as far as company time and resources, to develop.? Wolverine?s project team began working on the air quality permit last December and capped nine months of work when it was submitted in September. ?We were most concerned with putting together the best team. We are very confident in the quality of the team that we brought together,? Borr said.
MUCH WORK is devoted to many aspects of the plant, including future carbon emissions and what is being done on a worldwide perspective. ?From the company?s perspective, we welcome the debate on climate change. We are actively involved in that debate, particularly at the federal level. I think in the end, that is where this issue will likely be addressed, in the U.S. Congress and we are very engaged in that process. One of the things that is very important is what we are doing pro-actively in regard to carbon. As an example, we are one of the founding utility members of a group called the Climate Registry,? Borr said. According to its website, The Climate Registry ?is a collaboration between states, provinces and tribes aimed at developing and managing a common greenhouse gas emissions reporting system with high integrity that is capable of supporting various greenhouse gas emission reporting and reduction policies for its member states and tribes and reporting entities. It will provide an accurate, complete, consistent, transparent and verified set of greenhouse gas emissions data from reporting entities, supported by a robust accounting and verification infrastructure.? The Climate Registry was formed earlier this year.
?To my knowledge we are the only utility in Michigan which has joined (The Climate Registry),? Borr said. ?We are very interested in ensuring that the carbon footprint that we have currently, as well as the carbon footprints that we will have in the future is accurately measured and reported. I think the thing that perhaps some of the local opponents of this project don?t realize is that Wolverine has a significant carbon footprint today. This project doesn?t change that. ?From our standpoint, we feel that time and effort would be much better served to focus those (opponents?) resources on efforts to perhaps retire some of these older generating facilities in our state and throughout the U.S. that are, on average, about 50 years old and are incredibly dirty.?
FOR THEIR part, Wolverine is planning for the future, and is not rushing the project to avoid regulations, which may be coming. Borr said. ?We have some urgencies to the project but it has nothing to do with avoiding carbon regulation, which we fully intend to be ready for when it happens. There is a big difference. Our urgency doesn?t center on beating regulations. It has to do with when does that contract run out and leave us without energy to provide for our members,? Bradstreet said. ?I think we are way out front of most utilities on the whole carbon issue. We have done a number of things to position ourselves in the very design of the project?it is called carbon ready design?so that you have got anticipated space that is necessary to apply the technology when it is commercially available.? Borr said that the Clean Energy Project would even meet the European Union carbon capture standards, which he said is one of the strictest standards in the world. Many of the older plants are constrained by space, making it difficult or impossible to add on. The area the Rogers City plant will occupy, in the Calcite mine, has a great amount of space to expand. Borr said carbon sequestration technology is still in the experimental phase, and might be 15 years away from perfecting the process in an economically attractive way.
?WE UNDERSTAND that likely will be a part of any project that goes forward in this country. What I think many people don?t understand is that (technology) is not here today. From our standpoint as a company, we have an obligation to serve our members and we have a pretty significant power supply void that we need to fill in about five years. An approach that says let?s just sit here and see how this will all play out is just not a very proactive approach and one that we will not accept,? Borr said. Wolverine, they said, has to plan for the day when carbon regulations are coming, and leave their design plans open to accommodate those regulations. ?The whole project has been undertaken with the assumption that carbon will be regulated. We are not trying to avoid it,? Bradstreet said.
SOME CONCERNS have been raised about the company?s decision to locate the power plant in the limestone quarry, given the area?s karst geology. Bradstreet said the geologists have done extensive testing and so far, so good. ?We have had consultants all over that property all summer and even in the harbor, boring holes in the ground under the water and boring holes where the proposed site is going to be. Part of our due diligence is to understand what is down there, all the way down to the bedrock,? he said. Borr said the hydro geologists on the consulting team have determined ?no void or karst related feature were found in any boring at the site in any boring,? after 25 borings to the underground bedrock were made at the 400-acre site. Work is continuing on that study. ?The point is we take those issues seriously as well,? Borr said. ?When someone makes the insinuation that we haven?t looked at this issue, trust me, we have, that and hundreds of other issues relating to this project.?
State regulators will also ask about karst geology in a rigorous process to satisfy the permitting process, Bradstreet said. ?In the end it will be even more rigorous from our perspective because the last thing this company will want to do is move forward with a capital investment of $1 billion and not have those pieces of due diligence answered,? Borr said.
?WE CARE ABOUT how we are going to do this project and we do not take
No power plants have been built in Michigan since the 1980s and the average age of a power plant in the state is at least 48 years old. In answer to the state?s growing energy needs, as identified by the MDEQ, the state has called for more plants to be built. More information on the Wolverine Clean Energy Venture can be found at www.wolverinecleanenergy.com.