Plans dropped for proposed Wash. biomass plant

A joint venture between AREVA and Duke Energy is dropping plans to build a 55-megawatt power plant in Washington state that would have burned wood waste to generate electricity, the company said Monday.

ADAGE is abandoning the $250 million project near Shelton, Wash., about 80 miles southwest of Seattle, due to increased economic uncertainties, a poor market for new projects and other factors, spokesman Tom DePonty said.

The project has faced opposition from citizens groups who worried that air pollution from the plant would harm human health and the environment.

But it also had support from local officials and others who saw the proposed plant as a chance to bring jobs to this logging community. The company had said the facility would create about 400 jobs during construction and more than a 100 jobs during operations. The plant would have burned about 600,000 tons of biomass a year, including tree tops and limbs.

A weak market for renewable energy prompted ADAGE's decision to drop plans for the Mason County project, Port of Shelton executive director John Dobson said.

"Ultimately the decision by ADAGE to suspend development was made by the marketplace," he said, noting the demand for the electricity from the power plant wasn't there.

ADAGE had planned to build the facility on Port of Shelton property, about two miles northeast of Shelton. In December, staff of the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency had recommended preliminary approval of construction for the project. The agency has not issued a final determination yet, agency spokesman Dan Nelson said Monday.

"It's a sweet moment of victory for us but we're not done," said Duff Badgley, with No Biomass Burn, who vowed to continue to fight other biomass projects in Washington state.

AREVA is a major nuclear power manufacturer based in Bethesda, Md. Duke Energy is an electric power company based in Charlotte, N.C.