Hartford Business Journal

10 Hartford Business Journal • September 10, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Interest groups tangle over fracking waste ban ordinances By Matt Pilon mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com T here's a race to establish rules for how cities and towns store and process waste from hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," and several in- terest groups have taken the lead ahead of state regulators. The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) and a nonprofit called Food & Water Watch have come out swinging in recent weeks, ac- cusing each other of promoting local fracking-waste bans that will be harm- ful in different ways. While Connecticut lacks extract- able natural gas deposits, the concern is that fracking — which involves drilling into rock with pressurized water to extract oil or gas — in other regions of the country could lead to waste products being used, dumped or treated in waste facilities here. In short, CCM says Food & Water Watch's policy language goes too far in what it bans, which could cause prob- lems for local road and infrastructure projects. Food & Water Watch coun- ters that CCM doesn't go far enough, increasing the risk of fracking waste contamination that could include elevated levels of radium. Food & Water Watch, which pushed for New York's fracking ban in 2014 and also advocates against corporate control of food and water, appears to be in the lead. It says 49 Connecticut municipali- ties have passed ordinances it favors. Meanwhile, CCM released its own model ordinance Aug. 23, saying it's concerned that local governments are being pres- sured to pass regulations they may real- ize later are "overly expansive." "If municipalities are going to enact or- dinances, they should be mindful of eco- nomic development implications," said Joe DeLong, CCM's executive director. Local and state The flurry of local activity comes as the Department of Energy and Environ- mental Protection (DEEP) missed a July 1 deadline set by the legislature to issue regulations regarding the storage and disposal of fracking waste. There's been FOCUS: Green Business/Energy By Matt Pilon mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com C onnecticut is experiencing a boom in new power plants. Despite the recent closure of power plants that provide electricity to New England's shared power grid, several new generation facilities have opened that not only replaced lost output but increased Connecticut's electricity contributions to the region. The largest new Connecticut power plant is in Oxford, where the 805-megawatt CPV Towantic natural gas plant, which can also run on oil if needed, entered service in June. Com- bined with two new gas-fired turbines in Wallingford and a 20-megawatt solar farm in New London County that also went live this year, 2018 is already Connecticut's biggest year in more than a decade for new generation coming online, according to data from grid operator ISO-New England. Next year, the 484-megawatt Bridgeport Harbor natural gas plant is slated to open, replacing the state's last remaining coal-fired facility. Meanwhile, NTE Energy has been trying to win approvals to build a 650-megawatt natural gas plant in Killingly, which could open by 2022. "This is the first major building boom for power plants we're seeing in about 10 to 15 years," said Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association (NEPGA), which represents power plants across the six states, totaling around 25,000 megawatts of capacity. The trend is also reflected in the ris- ing amount of electricity that genera- tors here pledge to make available in the future, including from plants not yet in service, in exchange for up-front "capacity" payments. In each of the past four years, Con- necticut generators have pledged more output than in any other year since ISO-NE started running capacity auctions in 2007, ISO-NE data show. The growth has been fueled in part by new plants like Towantic and Bridgeport Harbor, in addition to high- er output from existing generators. Dolan says Connecticut's develop- ment activity is not entirely unique. "We're seeing this across the New England electricity market," he said. "Broadly speaking, we are looking at 4,200 megawatts that are going away and being replaced by a comparable number coming into the system." Large, new power plants are signifi- cant because they bring tax dollars and jobs. They also replace older, often dirtier generation with more efficient technology, though they still emit carbon dioxide and pollutants. Of course, shepherding new genera- tors through the planning and approval process takes years and is never guar- anteed. Power plants often face fierce opposition from residents concerned about air pollution and property values. Developers also face competition from an increasing amount of renewable energy in the region. Planning for retirement Besides wear and tear from age, many of the power plants that are being shut- tered can no longer compete with cheap natural gas that has become abundantly available as a result of the shale boom in several U.S. regions outside of New England, according to the U.S. Depart- ment of Energy. In recent years, New England has seen the retirement of the massive 1,535-megawatt Brayton Point and 749-megawatt Salem Harbor coal and oil plants in eastern Massachu- setts, as well as the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. In Connecticut, NRG announced in 2013 that it would shutter its oil-fired, 342-megawatt Norwalk Harbor Sta- tion plant, and ISO-NE currently deems another 1,658 megawatts worth of fossil New Generation Amid closures, CT sees a wave of new power plants PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED A view of the recently completed CPV Towantic plant in Oxford, which adds about 800 megawatts of natural-gas-fired generation to New England's power grid.

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