BOW, NEW HAMPSHIRE - No Coal No Gas activists published a parody press release, as well as a spoof website, announcing a delist bid for Merrimack Station in Bow, NH. The move was designed to pressure Granite Shore Power, owner of New England’s last coal-fired power plant, to comment on their plans for the future of the generator. Out of respect for reporters, the activists posted their satirical statement only through Utility Dive’s pay-to-publish press release feed, which publishes immediately upon submission and is reviewed retroactively. Activists hope to use this spoof to unmask the harms that Merrimack Station and its corporate owners create in the surrounding community and reveal what future accountability could look like.
During a September 20 - October 7 window, Granite Shore Power and its respective owner, private equity firm Atlas Holdings, LLC, had the opportunity to submit a permanent retirement delist bid to regional grid operator ISO-NE. During ISO-NE’s Static Delist Bid window November 10-18, GSP CEO Jim Andrews and Atlas Holdings executives will have another to acknowledge the harm caused by the coal plant and file to take it offline.
Granite Shore Power could not be reached for comment after the release of the parody press statement. “Their choice not to refute these statements is fascinating,” said Rebecca Beaulieu, Communications Director of 350NH Action and No Coal No Gas member. “If Granite Shore Power has no intention of taking Merrimack Station offline, why don’t they simply say so? Their lack of response makes us wonder if they do in fact plan to delist the plant.”
Corporations like Atlas Holdings and Granite Shore Power often operate in the shadows. By creating this parody press release and website, No Coal No Gas aims to bring their actions and their options into the public eye.
“Injustice happens around us every day, to the point that we often accept it or ignore it in order to go about our lives,” said Julie Macuga, a Vermont resident and member of the No Coal No Gas campaign. “Satire is a way to break that cognitive dissonance. This satirical press release from Granite Shore Power demonstrates the way we wish they’d respond to the delist filing period, and at the same time, it illuminates their greed and corruption in choosing to keep this coal plant online.”
The plant sits on the Merrimack River, polluting the air, water, and land. According to Global Energy Monitor, the station is responsible for health impacts including three deaths, six heart attacks, and forty-seven asthma attacks a year. While the fossil fuel industry often claims that it’s vital to the American job market, most workers at the coal plant are contractors who are not afforded the job security, benefits, or opportunities for advancement that come from working for a stable company that is building for the future. Granite Shore Power wants to squeeze the last pennies out of a dying coal industry for the sake of their rich stakeholders, instead of contributing to a healthier, lower-cost, and more reliable electricity grid.
From 2010 through 2026, ISO-NE has committed over $367 million to subsidize Merrimack Station. These funds, collected as a non-itemized portion of every utility bill, are paid whether the power plant is called upon to generate electricity. In this way, billions of ratepayer dollars are funneled through ISO-NE’s Forward Capacity Market to the oldest, dirtiest, and least economical generators in the region. From June 2022 through May 2023, the Forward Capacity Market will move over $1.1 billion from ratepayers to fossil fuel generators as subsidy payments to enable them to be ready to produce electricity during times of peak demand. If they are activated, those generators will also be paid at market price for the electricity they produce. Estimates suggest that the fossil fuel subsidy portion of this program represents 10-15% of residential electric bills in the region.
“Ratepayers should not be forced to prop up the most polluting and most expensive sources of electricity just in case we need them,” said Marla Marcum, with the Climate Disobedience Center. She has worked extensively on research into the region’s Forward Capacity Market. “While we understand that moments of peak electricity demand in the region may require some back-up plan beyond base load generators, this market mechanism is an irresponsible use of resources. Forward Capacity commitments are made 3 years in advance of payment, which means that they could be used as guaranteed revenue to secure financing for transitioning the grid to clean, renewable, affordable, and equitable generation.”
Granite Shore Power also owns two generating stations on the Seacoast: Schiller Station and Newington Station. At the NH Offshore Wind Summit on September 20th, NH Business Review noted that Granite Shore Power President James Andrews “envisions the possibility of his plants retooling to become part of the grid that will ultimately deliver wind-generated electricity.” The new interest in offshore wind should be a further reason for Granite Shore Power to quit using coal. Granite Shore Power has an opportunity to transition to clean wind energy and use their Forward Capacity payments to clean up the pollution at Merrimack Station.
“James Andrews has a chance to do the right thing,” said Juliana Stoner, a member of No Coal No Gas. “He has a responsibility to not only support offshore wind energy in NH, but to make ethical business decisions to close the coal plant in Bow and clean up the damage caused to the surrounding areas. These companies have caused both current and long-term sickness, destruction, and death. They have the power to create immense future harm—and they have just as much power to prevent it.”
In the past 3 years, the No Coal No Gas campaign has spread across the region to demand a shutdown of Merrimack Station. Members of the campaign have traveled south to the Connecticut home of ISO-NE’s CEO and the office and north to a recent FERC forum in Burlington, VT. They have protested at Atlas Holdings’ Connecticut headquarters, on snowy railroad tracks in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and amid the ash and dust of the coal plant itself. The campaign will continue to put pressure on stakeholders until the coal plant is shut down, governance of the grid is transparent and accountable to ratepayers, and the community decides on a just transition plan for the land the plant occupies. When Granite Shore Power officially decides to announce the retirement of their plant, they are more than welcome to use No Coal No Gas’s press release.
