Perennial Power Holdings has abandoned the plans to build a natural gas power plant at Hermiston. A series of litigation brought up by environmental groups led to the plan being aborted. On Tuesday, April 15th, Columbia Riverkeeper, and Friends of the Columbia Gorge announced that the counsel for the Perennial Wind Chaser Station sent an email.
On 5th April, the mail was sent to the Multnomah County Circuit Court, which stated that the project would cease construction and the company would ask the Energy Facility Siting Council to terminate the project’s state-issued permit. Erin Saylor, an attorney for Columbia Riverkeeper said, “We think this is a huge win for the climate. Hopefully it shows developers that Oregon is just not a place for new fossil fuel infrastructure.”
The groups have alleged the state to have violated their own rules by allowing Perennial to begin construction without obtaining proper approval and permits from the Energy Facility Siting Council. According to critics, the company has rushed into starting construction and meet the regulatory deadline to avoid tons of money in emissions fees under the latest executive order on climate change by Gov. Kate Brown.
More than 1 million tons of greenhouse gases per year was the estimated emission of the plant. News reports also say that it would have been the state’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
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