Village Council considers a second coal-fired plant

By Diane Chiddister and Lauren Heaton

At their meeting Monday, Nov. 5, Yellow Springs Village Council members almost approved 3–1 an emergency ordinance that would have committed the Village to a 45-year contract with an AMP-Ohio coal-fired plant in Illinois. But this week the Village recognized that according to Village code, emergency ordinances require four votes to pass, and all three issues will return to Council for further consideration at a future meeting.

The ordinances came before Council as emergency measures, according to Village Manager Eric Swansen, due to the Dec. 14 deadline for a coal power contract established by the developer Prairie State. By attempting to pass an emergency ordinance, Council could approve the legislation in one reading instead of the requisite two, and also eliminate the 30-day wait before signing. Council does still have the option of attempting another emergency passage of the power ordinance, but as of Tuesday, Swansen did not know if the issue would appear on the agenda for the Nov. 19 Council meeting.

Voting at Council’s Nov. 5 meeting to approve the measures were Kathryn Chase, Karen Wintrow and Kathryn Van der Heiden, while Judith Hempfling voted against them. Bruce Rickenbach was absent. Acting Council President Karen Wintrow stated during the meeting that the issue may have been too complex to ask a new Council to take on quickly.

But because the issue has now been delayed, the new Council will take it on anyway. As a result of the election on Nov. 6, current Council members Karen Wintrow and Judith Hempfling will be joined by incumbent Kathryn Van der Heiden and new members Lori Askeland and John Booth. Together, they will decide how to move forward.

Last month, Council voted to postpone a vote of whether to sign on to another AMP-Ohio coal plant, in Meigs County, Ohio. While Council had originally intended to make a decision by Nov. 1 on the Meigs County plant, Council later voted to postpone the decision due to the number of villagers who expressed concern that the Village did not have enough information from the environmental side about the drawbacks of the plant. In the AMP-Ohio contract, the Meigs plant would supply the Village with 3.17 megawatts of coal power, and it is committed to applying Powerspan’s carbon capture technology when it becomes available.

Now the Village is being asked to sign on to one megawatt of coal power from Prairie State on a “take or pay” basis, which means the Village agrees to pay the debt service and operating costs of the plant whether or not it produces power. Prairie State broke ground last month on the new 1,600 megawatt plant in Lively Grove, Ill., and is not committed to utilizing the Powerspan technology, according to AMP-Ohio spokesperson Kent Carson.

Prairie State and Meigs are two-thirds of a three-component plan for meeting the Village’s total energy needs. The other component is 0.80 megawatts from an AMP-Ohio hydroelectric plant, which Council approved 4–0 on Nov. 5. Currently the Village uses a total of around 5 megawatts, which is expected to approach 6 megawatts over the next 30 years, according to AMP-Ohio’s projections calculated from the village’s history of power use.

Before voting against the Prairie State ordinance, Hempfling said it made little sense for Council to rush forward with committing to the Prairie State plant after it postponed the decision on the Meigs County plant, and no additional information has been presented in the interval.

“As a community we need to be thinking about our energy needs in a way to be thoughtful about it,” she said. “We need to have more of an overview to make good decisions.”

Both Hempfling and Van der Heiden stated that they were disturbed that they had never before heard of the Dec. 14 deadline, and suddenly they were being asked to decide.

Swansen recommended that the Village sign on to the plant, and said that he had previously discussed the deadline with Council. However, in a subsequent interview this week, Swansen said that Prairie State notified him of the Dec. 14 deadline for the first time in late October, and that Nov. 5 was the first chance he had to present it to Council.

Wintrow said that she was “less conflicted” about the Prairie State plant because it is already developed and under construction, as compared to Meigs County, which is still in the development stage.

Several residents who attended Council’s Nov. 5 meeting urged Council to move ahead with the decision and said that the Village doesn’t have the luxury of conducting a “philosophical” discussion on energy use while deadlines to commit to energy sources come and go. Also, according to Chase, signing on to the Prairie State plant does not preclude a community dialogue.

It makes sense to “go ahead and sign on this one” while still pursuing dialogue on the Meigs County plant, according to Van der Heiden, who stated that she believes the Village will have to use coal power for the foreseeable future. However, villager Dimi Reber stated that it makes no sense to commit to coal use for 45 years when research on alternative energy sources is producing new information daily.

“The public has not been alerted,” she said of the coal plant issue. “The same issue that caused such a furor is being brought up again.”

In an interview last week, Carson said that Yellow Springs is one of the few municipalities that has not yet signed on to the Meigs County plant. Of the 75 municipalities asked to sign on, he said, all have agreed except Westerville, who declined for environmental reasons, and a few other municipalities who have not yet responded. Columbus officials have stated that the city needs to reevaluate its energy use before signing on.

In other Council business:
• Council members and villagers discussed further a proposal by the Yellow Springs Alliance, an organization which seeks to help guide economic development in Yellow Springs. At a Council meeting several weeks ago, that alliance’s spokesperson, Dan Young, presented a proposal that included a request to use the $250,000, which the Village earmarked for economic development raised by the property tax levy passed last year. The YSA is composed of representatives of Community Resources, The Community Information Project and the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Hempfling on Nov. 5 urged Council to broaden its definition of “economic development” to include, as well as business-oriented groups, other important Yellow Springs entities, including arts groups, the Smart Growth Task Force, community supported agriculture representatives and Antioch College.

“The kind of economic development we pursue will affect the kind of community we become,” Hempfling said.

Four representatives from the Yellow Springs Arts Council read a letter during the Nov. 5 meeting requesting that arts organizations, and specifically the Arts Council, be brought in to any economic development discussions.

Van der Heiden suggested that Council sponsor a community-wide discussion on economic development, as well as appoint a task force to study the issue. However, according to Chase, the village runs the risk of simply talking about the issue and never taking action. She also supported the YSA proposal for overseeing Village economic development monies because that group “has a concrete record of accomplishment over the past few years.”

Dan Young, representing the YSA, urged Council to take action soon on economic development. He also stated that the YSA recognizes the importance of the arts as an economic development force in Yellow Springs.

• Council voted 4–0 in favor of the Village committing to an AMP-Ohio hydroelectric plant on the Ohio River. The plant would supply about .80 megawatts of electrical power, according to Swansen, who said the Village cannot buy into a larger share because the plant is already overcommitted.

• Council approved a resolution allowing the Village to hire the Springfield consulting firm of Eggeman Engineering and Consulting LLC to serve as the Village’s representative for the Center for Business and Education. The fees will be covered by a matching U.S. Army Corps grant and funds from Community Resources.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com or lheaton@ysnews.com