Plan for Boardman plant includes invasive cane crops
Update 10:15 a.m. April 7: The House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources will hold a public hearing on House Bill 2183 at 8 a.m. Thursday in Hearing Room D at the Oregon Capitol.
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Oregon's sole coal-fired energy plant will close by 2020, part of a legislatively mandated move toward cleaner electricity sources with fewer carbon emissions.
But some scientists worry its replacement could cause a different kind of environmental damage.
Portland General Electric, which owns the coal plant in Boardman, is hoping to convert the facility to biomass, or burning of plant and animal matter.
Since 2011, PGE has been growing test plots of a possible feedstock called Arundo donax L., or Giant Reed.
The hardy cane, which can grow nearly 4 inches per day and reach heights of 20 feet, may be harvested up to three times a year. That makes it attractive as an energy crop.
But it's also earned the nickname "devil weed" for its ability to spread quickly and uncontrollably, muscling out native plants and choking waterways.
"From an environmental point of view, you would be out of your mind to choose this plant and introduce it into Oregon on large scale," said Susan Aldrich-Markham, retired Oregon State University Agricultural Extension agent and professor emeritus.
The Oregon Legislature is considering a bill that would require Giant Reed growers to post a bond of at least $1 million. The money could be used for eradication efforts if the plant escapes its boundaries.
PGE doesn't believe the bill is necessary.
The company has been working closely with regulators and scientists to learn how to grow the plant responsibly, Brendan McCarthy, PGE government affairs analyst, told a House committee last month.
"We've actually in a sense, from whole cloth, created how we treat growing, harvesting, transporting this material in a safe manner," McCarthy said. "Every step of the way, when people present concerns to us, we test them."
But some say the bill doesn't doesn't go far enough.
"Portland General Electric's option to plant many tens of thousands of acres of a catastrophic invasive species threatens every streamside habitat in the Columbia River Drainage," Billy Don Robinson, state vice president of the Native Plant Society of Oregon, told the committee.
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation has asked the committee to ban the crop.
And California officials are warning the state against the experiment.
California taxpayers have spent about $100 million dealing with the weed, and the state is poised to spend $100 million more, said Jason Giessow, an ecologist for Dendra Inc., which wrote an impact assessment for the state.
"We are working hard to control our invasive Arundo, and do not want to see Oregon experience similar impacts," said Doug Johnson, executive director of the California Invasive Plant Council.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture is not taking a position on the bill.
If PGE is successful, the Boardman plant could become the largest biomass-fueled generating facility in the nation.
tloew@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/SJWatchdog
About the bill
House Bill 2183 would require commercial growers of Arundo donax L. to file a bond with the Invasive Species Council and allow the council to make grants or loans to eradicate the plant if it spreads.
Growers would pay $1 million for fields of 400 acres or less, and $25,000 per acre for fields more than 400 acres.
A public hearing scheduled for Thursday in the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources has been canceled.