Two hearings in Portage on Tuesday over a proposed Alliant Energy coal-fired electric power plant brought forth vastly divergent perspectives on the issue.

In the first hearing, most of those who testified said the plant, if built at Cassville, would bring in much-needed economic development to southwest Wisconsin, and would take the lead in renewable energy by generating up to 20 percent of its power from "biomass" such as wood, corn stalks and switchgrass.

In the second hearing - which began just minutes after the first session concluded - nearly all those who testified denounced the plant as a potential source of pollution, greenhouse gases and ill health.

Wisconsin Power and Light, doing business as Alliant Energy, has proposed a 300-megawatt coal-fired plant in the Mississippi River village of Cassville, with the Columbia Energy Center south of Portage as an alternative site.

The formal hearings, held at the Portage VFW post before Edward Marion, an administrative law judge, involved sworn testimony, transcribed verbatim by a court reporter.

All told, the two hearings took about five hours, with several dozen people speaking for or against the plans.

Testimony from the hearings, and from similar hearings held Monday in Cassville, will be considered by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin in deciding whether to approve, reject or modify Alliant's proposals.

The commission is required to give equal weight in considering each proposed site, even though Alliant has gone on record as strongly favoring Cassville.

Most of those who spoke at the earlier session shared that view. Several showed up at the hearing wearing buttons proclaiming, "Unions support Cassville project."

Representatives of several unions testified that the $1 billion construction project would bring an immediate economic boost to an economically troubled area of Wisconsin, and would ensure the state's economic future by providing a reliable energy source.

"Who else is proposing that kind of responsible economic growth?" asked Scott Vaughn, executive director of the Building Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin.

University of Wisconsin student Alexandra Tempest said she understands why people in and around Cassville would want the jobs that could be created by building the plant there, because her hometown, Shawano, has faced similar economic struggles.

But, she said, such jobs would come at a cost - namely, the pollution that she said would result from the plant.

"To hear about a coal-fired power plant that threatens water quality and produces greenhouse gases that cause global warming - that breaks my heart," she said.

Sam Weis, spokesman for the environmental organization Clean Wisconsin, said Clean Wisconsin and the Sierra Club chartered two buses from Madison to the Portage hearings, and about half of the 70 people on the bus were UW students.

The Rev. David Steffenson, a retired United Methodist minister and former director of the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign, traveled from Madison to testify that he believes it would be immoral to build a coal-burning plant anywhere in Wisconsin.

"The first stakeholders in this are all the humans on this planet," he said. "The other stakeholder is the planet itself."

Furthermore, Steffenson said, Alliant's proposal to eventually generate up to 20 percent of its energy from burning biomass instead of coal is "truly putting lipstick on a pig."

The 20 percent biomass proposal would apply only if the plant were built in Cassville. Ken Rineer, a PSC environmental analyst, said Alliant recently testified, in technical hearings before the PSC, that it could generate up to 4 percent of any energy generated at a Portage plant with biomass, but plans would call for using only coal if the plant were built at Portage.

Several who testified questioned whether Alliant is truly committed to using biomass, as the company has backed off from a proposal to use biomass for 10 percent of the energy generated at a plant in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Brett Hulsey, president of Madison-based Better Environmental Solutions, held a sheaf of switchgrass in his left hand as he raised his right hand to take an oath before testifying.

By partial use of biomass, Hulsey said, a plant in Cassville would offer "a better environmental solution" to generating needed energy, utilizing plentiful sources of biomass produced near the plant.

"If we build this plant, we can create more of our fuel in Wisconsin," he said. "Or, we could buy power off the Midwest grid, probably produced by dirty old coal."

R.J. Pirlot, legislative director of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, testified that "affordable, reliable electricity will keep our stores open and our factories running."

But Raymond Voss, who lives in the town of Pacific not far from the existing two Alliant coal-fired plants, said the costs of coal are too high in terms of environmental and health hazards.

"I don't care if the plant is in Cassville, Portage or wherever it is," he said. "We have got to look to the future. It's not just jobs, and it's not just money. It's our lives that are at stake here."

The PSC is expected to decide on the issue before the end of the year.

Loren Farrey of Mineral Point, who retired after 18 years of working at the Columbia Energy Center near Portage, said the issues surrounding the plant will not be easy for the commission to sort out.

"We have a love-hate relationship with power plants," he said. "We want all the power we can get, but we really are concerned with how it's produced."

 

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