(HERMISTON, OR) - - That controversial natural gas power project near Hermiston might not be dead after all.
Perennial Power Holdings says that since announcing in
mid-April that it would abandon the project, a "new potential buyer"
appeared.
"We are currently reviewing this offer," the
Sumitomo subsidiary said in an emailed statement.
The latest twist in the fate of the 415-megawatt Perennial
Wind Chaser project was first reported by the East Oregonian.
Perennial originally received a site certificate for the
project in 2015, but it was unable to land a power purchase agreement and the
plant remained unbuilt. Facing a September 2018 deadline to begin construction,
the company was granted an extension until September 2020.
In a suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court,
environmentalists charged the company missed the new deadline, and said the
Oregon Department of Energy bent its rules in allowing unpermitted road work to
keep the certificate alive.
A hearing in the case had been scheduled for April 6, but
the day before, Perennial asked to have it canceled, saying it was terminating
the site certificate and the plant “will not be constructed.”
That hearing is now back on the court docket, scheduled for
Thursday. An attorney for Columbia Riverkeeper, one of the groups fighting the
plant, told the East Oregonian that opponents believe the site certificate is
invalid and can't be transferred.
