County Board faces choice on power plant proposal

By David Steinkraus and Pete Wicklund

Wednesday, June 25, 2003 11:00 PM CDT

IVES GROVE - Some county municipalities are already on record as opposing the proposed expansion of the Oak Creek power station, and now the County Board has the opportunity to join that group.

Supervisor Diane Lange, Racine, introduced a resolution on Tuesday night to oppose We Energies' proposal to expand its power plant by adding two coal-fired generators and, in about 10 years, a third generator driven by gas extracted from coal. The proposal is pending before the state Public Service Commission and has drawn widespread opposition from people concerned about the environmental cost of burning coal.

Lange cited that issue, among others, in her resolution.

"My concerns come from the public health concerns as well as, I think, it will have a negative effect on our business climate," she said on Wednesday. Lange works as a public health nurse for the city of Racine.

Her resolution also says there would be a detrimental increase in train traffic to supply coal to the plant and notes the utility's failure to abide by federal air pollution laws. That resulted in a recent fine and settlement with the federal government.

"Constituents in my district seem to support the stand in opposing the current We Energies plan," she said.

At Tuesday's County Board meeting, Racine Alderman Pete Karas told supervisors that adding more generating capacity is not the answer.

"Many of us believe we need to deal with conservation and renewable energies and tackle it that way," Karas said. "It all gets down to We Energies' bottom line."

He said he worried that the expansion would lead to higher rates for utility customers. As a comparison he cited Miller Park, saying that the ballpark was once projected to cost $380 million but now may cost as much as $1 billion.

Last week, the Racine City Council voted to oppose the We Energies expansion. The village of North Bay and the town of Caledonia also have expressed opposition. Lange said she had thought about her resolution of opposition but hadn't put it on paper until after the Racine vote.

"I guess I'm hoping that Racine County will continue the momentum in trying to fight this proposal," she said.

Including herself, she said, seven supervisors have signed on so far as co-sponsors of the resolution.

Following standard board procedure, Lange's resolution was referred to committee, two in this case: Executive and Intergovernmental Relations. If passed by those two bodies, the resolution will return to the board for a vote by all supervisors.

In March, the County Board passed another resolution regarding the power plant expansion. This one called for talks with We Energies to explore how the county might be compensated for the nearby presence of new, coal-fired generators.

In April, the city of Oak Creek and the utility announced an agreement saying that We Energies, in exchange for the city's acceptance of the expansion, would pay the municipality $2.5 million per year for the life of the plant and would invest $20 million in the redevelopment of old industrial land.

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