Senate OKs strict power plant rules.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Citizen-led campaigns against power plants in Coburg and other Oregon communities paved the way to a unanimous vote by the state Senate on Monday to set tougher approval standards for future energy generation develop- ments.

The 29-0 vote came after a South Dakota energy company pulled the plug on its plans for a natural gas-fired power plant on farmland two miles north of Coburg. That project, along with similar developments in the Marion County community of Turner and in south-central Oregon's Klamath County drew broad opposition from area residents.

Beyond that, the controversies stirred up criticisms - which Senate Bill 527 is meant to address - from activists and local government officials that their opinions carried no weight in the state-controlled plant-siting process. Critics also complained that the state's land use goals weren't given adequate consideration by the state Energy Facility Siting Council.

Under SB 527, before the siting agency could authorize a new power plant, Oregon law would require that:

Local governments conduct public hearings and file a report to the state in cases where a proposed facility doesn't comply with local land use laws.

If local governments and the siting council differ, the disagreement would be resolved through binding arbitration.

A task force be created on regional energy planning policy. It would make a report to the 2007 Legislature on how energy facility siting rules should accommodate state policy on conservation, renewable energy and regional energy production.

A Eugene-based environmental group that worked with citizens opposed to the Coburg facility and other plants cheered the bill's unanimous approval in the Senate.

"It was clear to us that the current laws were thwarting proper public process," said Lisa Arkin, executive director of the Oregon Toxics Alliance.

"The public wasn't allowed to have a voice in the siting process in a way that would have been effective. And when they had a voice, they certainly were not listened to."

Under current law, an applicant can choose to bypass local planning laws and instead have the matter decided by the state siting council.

In the case of the proposed Coburg plant, local land use and other rules would have posed major obstacles for the plant, so the proponent went instead to the siting council.

The bill heads to the House with strong bipartisan Senate support.

Sen. Bill Morrisette, a Springfield Democrat, carried the bill, saying local governments should have a stronger role in seeing that land use rules aren't overrun by the plant-siting authority.

Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, said he didn't consider SB 527 to tilt the balance unfairly to benefit local activists with a "not in my backyard" agenda. Whitsett said that with his strong libertarian political leanings, he has no problems with new energy plants.

But he said the law needed to be changed to give local citizens more say.