Despite new hurdle, coal plant work to begin

BILLINGS – Backers of an embattled coal-fired power plant proposed near Great Falls intend to begin construction by the end of November – despite a number of obstacles including a Friday order for a new air pollution analysis.

The Montana Board of Environmental Review said the 250-megawatt Highwood Generating Station must undergo an unprecedented analysis for small pollution particles that could threaten human health.

While the coal-fired boiler cannot be built until that’s done, Highwood attorney Kenneth Reich said Southern Montana Electric Cooperative intends to begin work on other parts of the plant in the interim.

The project will lose its air permit if construction does not commence by Nov. 30.

“We’re planning to move ahead,” Reich said. “There’s a whole lot of components of the power plant besides the boiler. There’s the foundations, there’s the piping, there are rail lines, transmission lines.”

However, Highwood faces challenges far broader than the air pollution dispute that led to Friday’s order.

Spiraling construction costs have pushed its price tag to at least $790 million. That was a factor in the federal government’s March rejection of a construction loan for the project. Concern on Wall Street over climate change makes it uncertain whether private financing can be found.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit challenging Cascade County’s zoning for the site is pending. And last month, one of Highwood’s largest backers, the Yellowstone Valley Electric Cooperative, said it wanted to pull out.

“This is a bad idea for so many reasons that it may have been doomed from the start,” said Abigail Dillen, an Earthjustice attorney who argued the case that resulted in Friday’s air pollution order.

“This is a plant that is unnecessary and it’s going to be spewing unnecessary pollution. Under those circumstances, it should be very hard for it to find financing,” she said.

Still, Southern Montana and its chief executive, Tim Gregori, have refused to give in to rising pressure to abandon the project.

Reich said Friday the cooperative continues discussions with possible financiers, although he said he could not discuss details.

He said the plant already employs some of the most advanced pollution controls possible. But it will perform the newly required pollution analysis to satisfy the order from the Board of Environmental Review.

Whether that analysis will result in additional construction costs is not known. State air quality officials said it would be the first attempt to analyze emissions of an extremely small type of particles known as particulate matter.

Measuring slightly larger particles has been a long-standing practice. Previously, those measurements were used to model how many of the smallest particles were emitted.

But the use of those “surrogate” pollutants was rejected for Highwood after environmentalists challenged the practice.

Dave Klemp, air resources bureau chief for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said it remains to be seen whether Highwood’s pollution controls will hold up to the more rigorous analysis.