Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon has long been a battleground between environmentalists and businesses. That conflict flared again, Tuesday night at a hearing in Portland over the question of possibly closing the state’s only coal-fired power plant.

The Department of Environmental Quality hearing brought out dozens of people in t-shirts with slogans like “Beyond Coal”.

Nick Engelfried of Hillsboro sent a clear anti-coal message to DEQ.

Nick Engelfried: “Require that PGE either install much-needed pollution controls, or even better, shut the plant down in the year 2015, or sooner.”

PGE could agree to follow rules that DEQ established last year. But since those rules don’t cover carbon emissions – PGE got DEQ to come up with alternatives that involve closing the Boardman plant in Morrow County. But PGE doesn’t like any of DEQ’s three choices.

DEQ’s 2015 shutdown option carries the least capital cost. That’s because PGE could avoid buying pollution-fighting equipment for the plant. But PGE argues the fast shutdown would increase rates, because the utility would have to scramble to buy electricity on the open market, to replace Boardman’s cheap power.

Business advocates spoke in favor of an alternative PGE has crafted to run the plant through 2020.

Here’s low-income activist and PGE staffer Margot Bryant.

Margot Bryant: “I can’t believe how heartless the Sierra Club can be trying to ramrod this closure, irregardless of the negative impacts it will have on people.” 

Joe Esmond: “There’s a frustration out there – I’ll tell you there’s a frustration out there, about certain groups, sort of elitist, who think the world is perfect. There are people who have to have jobs.”

That’s Joe Esmond of the electrical workers’ union.

Environmental groups made moral arguments, as well. The Sierra Club rallied a number of students to last night’s hearing, like Linfield College senior, Katie Kann.

Katie Kann: “I applaud PGE for trying, but I see any plan that keeps Boardman open another day as a failure to commit 100-percent to protecting our planet and our people.”

DEQ’s hearings and public comment period end next week. The state Environmental Quality Commission is scheduled to issue its rules in December.