Owners Finally Throw In Towel on 600 MW Avenal Plant
July 1,2015
The California Energy Commission (CEC) says the proponents of the controversial Avenal Power Center plant in Kings County have decided to end their permit request after 8 long years of struggle.
Staffer for the project for the Commission Camille Remy Obad, says attorneys for Avenal Power Center contacted her in the past few days and indicated they would be withdrawing their application to build the combined natural gas-fired plant. The $530 million facility was proposed on 480 acres just west of I-5 on the Avenal Cutoff Rd.
The project is in the city limits of Avenal who strongly supported it offering a big boost in property taxes for this low income community as well as potentially attracting more job producing industry nearby.
City Manager Melissa Whitten says she understands the company will let the permit lapse but holds out hope they may still find a use for 480 acre they own there. Calls to the owners office were not returned.
Plagued by strong opposition from environmental groups the long delay in approvals helped seal the fate of what would have been the Central Valley’s largest gas-fired power facility.
Over the 8 year period there has been a rise in renewable energy projects in the Valley including wind and solar that have been permitted and built as natural gas plants have lost regulatory favor. This is despite the fact gas is the cleanest fossil fuel source with abundant supply locally and a record low price for the fuel. A combined cycle plant unlike solar, runs 24-hours a day if needed.
Last fall the owners had requested and received a 6 month extension from the CEC to decide if they would begin construction by September 2015 now that all litigation had been settled, but not in their favor.
But this past February, JP Rexroad,VP of Avenal Power Center LLC in Houston Texas wrote Ms Obad that they were ”evaluating the need for new combined cycle plant ” in the state “ given recent announcements” by officials over California’s future power needs.
In recent months the state has indicated they would increase future grid requirements for renewable power from 33% to 50%.
That seems to suggest less of a need for base-power plants like Avenal.If there are no buyers for the power, the plant just will not be built. Several have been decommissioned recently like Morro Bay.
The project has been under the gun to install newer cleaner equipment to reduce emissions after a court decided not to grandfather the project using the former standard. Avenal indicted and the Valley Air Board agreed the plant would, nevertheless, be the cleanest ever built.
Proposed first back in 2007 the big plant had faced opposition from environmental groups based on the fact it is being proposed near “disadvantaged communities” like Avenal and Kettleman City where air pollution concerns are high.
Several groups had filed suit against the company on multiple occasions as Avenal sought what became protracted EPA approval as well as state approvals. Avenal even had to file suit against the EPA because they took 3.5 years to approve it and a Washington DC court ruled in their favor.
EPA ruled Avenal could get it permit under the old 8 Hr Clean Air standard since that was the law when they applied and only recently was changed.
The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and Greenaction filed suit with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the EPA permit – where they prevailed.The matter could of gone on to another appeal.
Now Avenal Power Center,LLC – after spending millions to get a permit – has thrown in the towel.