Lawmaker still backs waste for energy plan

By MARIE PRICE

World Capitol Bureau 7/3/2003

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Rep. Joe Hutchison's idea of requiring the Grand River Dam Authority to buy a certain amount of electricity generated by "green power" ran into trouble in the Legislature this past session, but the lawmaker isn't giving up on the idea.

The Jay Democrat has asked House Speaker Larry Adair, D-Stilwell, to approve a study of the cost of producing green power and its impact on the cost of electricity when purchased by the GRDA.

During the recently adjourned legislative session, Hutchison was the House author of a measure that would require the GRDA to buy electricity produced by poultry litter or other animal waste.

Power would have to be bought from plants in the GRDA watershed operated by nonprofit corporations.

Some legislators particularly objected to language capping purchased-power costs at 15 cents per kilowatt, which they said was high for the current market.

Hutchison indicated a willingness to negotiate on the cost-cap, but the language ultimately was removed from the bill.

He said his goal was to clean up Lake Eucha and Grand Lake, which are plagued with litter runoff from poultry farms. Lake Eucha is one of Tulsa's water supply sources.

Hutchison said representatives of a Colorado company that wants to build green power plants in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri gave him estimates for the increased cost of green power-produced electricity.

"We know about how much they would have to give for the green power and how much it would raise the costs of the utilities that bought it, which we don't think is going to be very much," he said.

"They told me that would raise probably about 40 cents per month, which would be about $5 a year, which is nothing to save an industry over here, the poultry industry. We're going to have to do something to get it cleaned up."

Poultry litter pollution has become a significant problem in northeastern Oklahoma, northwestern Arkansas and southwestern Missouri, Hutchison said.

Restrictions on how the waste can be used have almost wiped out the poultry industry, he said.

Using poultry waste to generate electricity would be a good way to use up some of it, he said.

"Of course, they'd have to have a place to sell it," he said. "GRDA, being a state agency, would be the most likely place to sell it. They have low-cost power right now, and I don't think it would raise their rates very much. I know they sure didn't like it when I put it in that bill."

Hutchison has filed another study request, a review to see whether it is feasible for GRDA to supply electricity to state agencies.

"What they were wanting to do is to furnish power to state offices," he said. "They could furnish it a lot cheaper than what the other utilities are doing."