March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

PERC, `refusenik’ settlement gets OK

A settlement between Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. and eight “refusenik” communities was endorsed Wednesday by municipalities which already have contracts with the waste-to-energy incinerator.

The vote all but ended more than three years of controversy that started when PERC, facing financial straits, asked to reopen the waste-disposal contracts.

“This allows us to go forward with the completion of the settlement transaction and enables us to complete the process of successfully resolving virtually all the contracts with the original 95 customer communities,” Charles Micoleau, PERC’s attorney, said during a break in the day’s session. “It’s been a long 3 1/2 years.”

The Municipal Review Committee, consisting of the 73 charter municipalities disposing of trash at the incinerator, overwhelmingly consented to the settlement. Under the terms of their contracts, charter municipalities had the right to pass judgment on the settlement.

The eight communities — Detroit, Ellsworth, Frankfort, Monroe, Newport, Pittsfield, Prospect and Monroe — held out for 3 1/2 years during which PERC renegotiated its contracts. The original projections for the plant proved overly optimistic and the company asked to rework the contracts to maintain economic viablity. Most communities agreed to the renegotiated contracts.

The refuseniks pressed their case. The dispute was resolved only after arbitration. The resulting settlement was one that PERC did not necessarily like, said Charles Micoleau, the company’s attorney.

But all eight communities approved the settlement, which set the stage for the Municipal Review Committee’s vote. The 73 towns and cities were awarded votes based on the weight of trash they are contracted to deliver to PERC. The votes ranged from Bangor’s 270 to Exeter’s 2. Communities totaling 1,131 votes consented to the settlement. Those with 87 votes opposed the settlement. The total number of possible votes was 1,501, but many small communities failed to cast ballots.

A second part of the vote empowered the committee’s board of directors to agree to additional terms and conditions to the existing contract. After the vote, the directors met with Micoleau to work out the details of some concessions sought by the committee. The company agreed to most of them in principle.

The concessions would provide assurances of the long-term stability of the plant and the relation between it and its charter customers. The board asked for them to counterbalance what it viewed as the short-term advantages that accrue to the eight refusenik communities with their settlement.

“Now we set the long-term assurances to paper. It’s all really a formality from this point on,” said Don Meagher after the vote. Meagher of Eastern Maine Development Corp. serves as clerk to the Municipal Review Committee.

The concessions wrought by the committee and agreed to by PERC call for:

A reduction from 180,000 to 155,000 tons the amount of trash charter municipalities are required to deliver annually to the incinerator.

The right for the Municipal Review Committee to acquire the plant before 2004 should the company terminate operations.

Asking PERC’s banks to cap interest rates on the money borrowed to finance construction. Interest rate fluctuations are passed through to the customers.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like