Printed in the Herald and News Sept 1, 2003.

I am opposed to the construction in Langell Valley of what would be the largest natural gas electric generating plant in the Northwest. I’m sure the knee jerk reaction of many, including the national administration, to the northeast blackout is to want to build more power plants and more transmission lines. And I am not opposed to that if the plants and lines are the right kind in the right place. Unfortunately, the COB plant is the wrong plant in the wrong place. I can think of at least ten reasons:

1. The construction of an industrial scale power plant on farm land in Langell Valley would violate the quality of life and agriculture of this quiet rural community. An exception to the Klamath County land code will be required and should not be granted by the state or county siting authorities.
2. The use of tax incentives by way of county enterprise zones would be a waste and a burden on local taxpayers. Enterprise zones should be used sparingly to create significant numbers of jobs by providing incentives for processing plants, not to line the pockets of power plant shareholders whose projects create few.
3. An electric power station is not needed in the local region, where over 600 MW of Pacific Power plants are already in operation, with a plan for another 500 MW.
4. The BPA high voltage transmission system is currently congested, particularly in the north to south direction which the COB facility would use to sell to California and Arizona markets. Transmission line congestion is one of the suspects in the northeast blackout.
5. The high voltage electricity grid in the west is under stress because plants like the COB are built distant from load centers, thus increasing the voltage instability we saw in the northeast blackout, and creating the need for additional power plants to provide voltage support.
6. The high voltage system best serves clean plants like wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal, located in specific areas usually remote from where the electricity is consumed, not natural gas plants which may easily be located close to where customers live and work.
7. A water-cooled facility using the Babson well would pose an unacceptable risk to irrigation groundwater on which farmers and ranchers depend for their livelihoods. And there is no reason to locate the plant in Langell Valley if the Babson well is no longer under consideration and the new proposal is for an air-cooled facility. Then again, an air-cooled facility would not be efficient at this high altitude, producing more air pollution per unit of electricity production and increasing the likelihood of shutdown for economic reasons. Solve one problem and you get another.
8. Have you checked your gas bill lately? Natural gas supplies in North America are diminishing, and natural gas prices have almost doubled in the past year, increasing the likelihood of uneconomic operation of this plant, frequent shutdowns, and higher prices for gas consumers.
9. It seems only fair to me that consumers causing power plants to be built, residing in the areas to which the power from the COB facility would be delivered, should be the ones exposed to the noise and pollution of the power plant serving them. This same principle best serves the efficiency, reliability, and security of the electric grid by distributing the stress caused by very large plants throughout the system. An 1100 MW power plant like COB, with the capacity to serve a city the size of San Francisco, Seattle or Portland, should be built in those places, not in a farming community like Langell Valley which will have no use for the electricity produced.
10. Klamath county should have a long term strategic plan. If it had one, I don’t think the COB plant would fit. The next generation electricity system takes advantage of local renewable resources like wood waste, wind, geothermal, and solar. It uses power plants that are small and compact like fuel cells, and that can be distributed throughout a community sized grid easily isolated from the cascading disturbances we have seen bring down the continental scale high voltage grids. The COB plant belongs to the old world we saw collapse in the northeast. The electricity technologies of the future will create local jobs, will go easy on the environment and our precious natural resources, and will be a lot more reliable.

I oppose this plant for these reasons, and yes, I will freely admit, because my ranch is ten miles down wind from the proposed location. I have served the past twenty years as a Klamath county commissioner, an Oregon public utility commissioner, and as Governor Kitzhaber’s energy advisor. I have seen a lot of energy schemes come and go, some worthy of public support, others so foolish they have spared their investors by dying early on the vine. But this one surpasses them all in its technological clumsiness and callous indifference to the local folks who will bear the brunt of its impacts every day of their lives.