Despite pleas, coal-fired power OK’d in Oberlin
Cindy Leise | The Chronicle-Telegram
OBERLIN — In a compromise that made no one happy, Oberlin City Council voted 4-to-3 Monday to commit to purchasing power from a new coal-fired power plant in southern Ohio.
Community members made impassioned pleas for Council to back away from the 40-year commitment to coal because of the carbon imprint on the environment and impact on global warming.
Alternatives and conservation were a better choice rather than committing to the plant, which is expected to open in 2013, community members said, spurring the audience of 60 or so people to clap and cheer.
“You can buy into 19th century technology or have the courage and the smarts to buy into 21st century technology,” said Oberlin College Professor David Orr, who was featured in Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary called “The 11th Hour.”
But the four Council members who voted to authorize a power sales contract with American Municipal Power — Ohio (AMP-Ohio) said they feared leaving the community without affordable power. The commitment over 40 years for the AMP-Ohio plant is estimated at $36 million.
Councilwoman Eve Sandberg, a politics professor at Oberlin College, said she questioned experts in hopes of finding affordable alternatives but came up empty-handed.
“It came nowhere near providing the amount of power we need for this community,” Sandberg said.
At her urging, Council dropped the level of power purchased from the proposed 1,000-megawatt plant from 12 kilowatts to 9 kilowatts, saying “I don’t want to have businesses and individuals in this community worried we will not have power.”
Council has until March 1 to opt out of the project, but it could not have gotten in and then had the choice to withdraw had it not approves the sales contract Monday.
Council President Daniel Gardener, and Councilmen David Ashenhurst and Charles Peterson voted against the plan. Voting for it were Council Vice President Ronnie Rimbert, Sandberg, and Councilmen Everett Tyree and Tony Mealy.
Rimbert said he was emotionally torn after hearing an impassioned plea from Elisa Young, who lives near the proposed site in Meigs County in southeastern Ohio.
“We would have nine power plants within a 10-mile radius of where my family has owned a farm for generations,” said Young, whose family got the land from fighting in the Revolutionary War.
With tears rolling from her eyes, Young showed Council photos of soot coming out of smokestacks even after scrubbers were placed on existing plants.
“I’m sorry but I’m pretty upset about being dumped on like this because of cheap electricity,” said Young, who said the area had the highest rates in the country for premature deaths.
Before the meeting, Steve Dupee, director of the Oberlin Municipal Light and Power System, said he and acting city manager Gary Boyle are working with Gardener, Orr and other staff from Oberlin College in hopes of finding alternatives and to promote conservation.
The cost of power in Oberlin is about 25 percent lower than in community without a power plant or for those that contract with different suppliers than AMP-Ohio, Dupee said.
Contact Cindy Leise at 653-6250 or cleise@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by Cindy Leise | The Chronicle-Telegram October 2nd, 2007 in Local and State. Popularity: 2% |
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