BUSINESS
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
HeRMIsTOnHeRaLd.COM • A7
Natural gas plant might be back on the table
developers of Perennial
Wind Chaser station
may have new buyer;
opponents vow to
continue court fight
By BRYCE DOLE AND
JADE MCDOWELL
sTaFF WRITeRs
The developer for a pro-
posed natural gas plant
outside Hermiston is
reviewing an offer from
a potential buyer who
expressed interest in con-
tinuing the project.
Perennial Power Hold-
ings said in a statement
that it is “re-examining
its options” on the Peren-
nial Wind Chaser Station,
which the company had
previously stated it was
planning to stop pursuing.
“Following steps we
had taken to examine var-
ious legal and regulatory
requirements required to
terminate our Site Certif-
icate for the Wind Chaser
power generating project,
we had a new potential
buyer step forward,” the
statement said. “We are
currently reviewing this
offer.”
Perennial-WindChaser
LLC, a subsidiary of
Perennial Power Hold-
ings, received a site cer-
tificate from the Energy
Facility Siting Council in
2015 to build a 415-mega-
watt natural gas plant out-
side Hermiston. After the
company broke ground
on a road on the site in
September 2020, Friends
of the Columbia Gorge
and Columbia River-
keepers filed a joint law-
suit against the project,
claiming, among other
things, the company had
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
A section of a roadway marks the entrance of the site of the future Perennial Wind Chaser Station on Friday, April 30, 2021.
not properly met require-
ments to keep its site cer-
tificate because it did not
have a storm water permit
yet when it started work.
A hearing on a motion
to dismiss the lawsuit
filed with the Multnomah
County Circuit Court had
been scheduled for April
6, but was canceled on
April 5 at the request of
Perennial, which told the
court it planned to drop
the project. That hearing
has now been resched-
uled to Thursday, May 6.
Erin Saylor, attor-
ney for Columbia Riv-
erkeeper, described the
environmental
group
as skeptical about the
mystery buyer and why
someone would want to
come forward after read-
ing about the litigation
attached to the project.
“We were pretty dis-
appointed,” she said.
“We’ve been calling this a
zombie project for years.
And this latest develop-
ment demonstrates just
how true it is. We thought
it was dead and now it’s
miraculously come back
to life again.”
The
technology
planned
for
Peren-
nial Wind Chaser Sta-
tion would allow it to
power up more quickly
than most power plants.
According to the state-
ment from Perennial, the
plant would be used to
prevent disruptions to
customers’ power during
peak usage times when
renewable energy sources
were not able to keep up
with demand. It could be
quickly brought online
when the wind was not
blowing at area wind
farms, for example.
“We remain convinced
that the Wind Chaser
technology we proposed
is both sound and in the
best interests of Oregon
and its residents in terms
of protecting the Ore-
gon grid and its custom-
ers from potential future
power disruptions, so we
are encouraged by this
new interest in continu-
ing the development of
this site ... With energy
demands ever increasing
in the region, we must
continue to consider how
to provide clean energy
sources that have minimal
impact upon the environ-
ment. Wind Chaser will
rely upon the least pol-
luting of the hydrocar-
bons sources, natural gas,
to help the region tran-
sition to a green-based
energy future,” the com-
pany stated.
Opponents paint it in a
different light.
According to a state-
ment by Columbia Riv-
erkeeper and Friends of
the Columbia Gorge, the
plant would be a major
polluter, emitting more
than 1 million tons of
greenhouse gases a year
and becoming the sixth
largest stationary source
of greenhouse gas emis-
sions in the state.
Saylor said now that
Perennial has decided to
continue with the litiga-
tion, Columbia River-
keeper and Friends of the
Columbia Gorge will per-
sist with their efforts to
fight the project in court,
arguing that its site cer-
tificate is no longer valid
and therefore can’t be
transferred to another
party.
Telemedicine options get boost from Senate bill
By JADE MCDOWELL
HeRMIsTOn HeRaLd
HERMISTON — The
pandemic spurred a surge in
telemedicine over the past
year, and some in the med-
ical industry are lobbying
for those options to remain
when life returns to a more
normal state.
One bill
introduced
by Sen. Bill
Hansell,
R - A t h -
ena, would
allow phar-
macists to
Hansell
provide vir-
tual services in certain
circumstances.
Senate Bill 629 is cur-
rently scheduled for a hear-
ing in the House Committee
on Health Care on Thurs-
day, May 6. The bill would
allow for a pharmacist to
remotely supervise a phar-
macy technician or speak
with a patient rather than
being on site. It would give
pharmacies in small cit-
ies without enough work to
support hiring a full-time
pharmacist the ability to
operate as a satellite office,
where a pharmacy techni-
cian dispenses medications
to patients under the super-
vision of a pharmacist at the
main location.
Hansell said he had pre-
viously helped get funding
for a medical clinic in Elgin
that was affiliated with
the Grande Ronde Hospi-
tal in La Grande. The small
clinic would like to be able
to dispense medications
to patients on site, he said,
but instead patients have to
travel an hour round trip to
pick up medications because
there is not enough work to
support a full-time pharma-
cist for the clinic. Under this
bill, a qualified pharmacist
with Grande Ronde Hospi-
tal could remotely supervise
a pharmacy technician at the
clinic in Elgin.
“We anticipate that other
clinics are in the same situa-
tion,” he said.
He said when he spon-
sored the bill, it was after
finding out that Oregon is
the only state west of Texas
not offering it as an option.
“I thought, if it’s that uni-
versal, if there are concerns,
we can work them out,” he
said.
The bill has received the
support of the Oregon Soci-
ety of Health System Phar-
macies, Oregon State Phar-
macy Association and the
Oregon Association of Hos-
pitals and Health Systems.
A surge in telehealth
Good Shepherd Health
Care System in Hermiston
has embraced new telehealth
options since the pandemic
began, but Troy LeGore,
vice president of Good
Shepherd Medical Group in
Hermiston, said in an email
that Good Shepherd Health
Care System as a whole has
had a “robust” selection of
telehealth offerings since
prior to the pandemic.
Those uses of video and
phone technology have
stretched across depart-
ments, and are often used to
help patients have access to
specialists not available on
site. In the clinics, patients
have access to tele-car-
diology,
tele-endocrinol-
ogy, genetic counseling
and monitoring of high-risk
pregnancies. In the emer-
gency room, patients might
be assisted by tele-stroke or
tele-neurology services. The
Family Birth Center also
connects virtually to spe-
cialists who can help guide
practitioners on site in criti-
cal care of infants.
Once the pandemic hit,
Good Shepherd added tele-
health for all primary care
clinics and urgent care,
allowing patients to see a
doctor without risking a
visit in person. The hospi-
tal also added other options
to help people avoid com-
ing inside, such as curbside
pickup from the pharmacy.
If a patient is showing signs
of COVID-19, they can dis-
cuss their symptoms with
a provider over video first,
before getting a curbside
COVID-19 test.
LeGore said telemed-
icine has its benefits and
drawbacks.
On the negative side,
some patients don’t feel like
they got their money’s worth
if they didn’t see a doctor in
person and some struggle
with figuring out the tech-
nology needed to connect.
There are also hands-on
assessments that need to be
done in person, such as tak-
ing blood pressure.
On the other hand,
LeGore said, telehealth
gives patients in more rural
areas access to specialists
they would otherwise have
to travel long distances
to see. It has also helped
limit patients’ and provid-
ers’ exposure to each other
during the pandemic.
“Telehealth options pro-
vide a convenient and
safe way to deliver lim-
ited patient care and fol-
low-ups,” he said.
LeGore said Good Shep-
herd plans to continue pro-
viding
services
added
during the pandemic.
Cheryl Pearce, director
of physician clinics for St.
Anthony Hospital in Pend-
leton, said the hospital had
used telehealth in some
cases in the past, including
for its stroke recovery pro-
gram. But the clinics were
limited on what telehealth
they could provide.
Rural clinics were unable
to be reimbursed for tele-
health appointments for
Medicare patients in their
home, for example.
Once the pandemic hit,
the Trump administration
waived those rules, allow-
ing clinics to continue see-
ing patients even when
everything was shut down.
“A lot of the time, we just
had to do it by telephone ini-
tially, because we couldn’t
get any webcams because
everyone in the country was
trying to do everything vir-
tually,” Pearce said.
Since then, however, St.
Anthony has been able to
expand and strengthen its
virtual telehealth offerings.
Pearce said the number of
visits done virtually have
“waxed and waned” over
the course of the pandemic,
depending on how quickly
COVID-19 is spreading in
the community.
Telehealth can be partic-
ularly useful for follow-up
visits, she said, when pro-
viders have already diag-
nosed the problem but need
to check in with a patient to
see whether their symptoms
have improved or if their
new medication is working.
She said she hopes to
see more rule changes like
Hansell’s
telepharmacy
bill, allowing clinics to con-
tinue expanding telehealth
options after emergency
authorizations for the pan-
demic end.
Restaurant Revitalization
Fund now taking applications
HeRMIsTOn HeRaLd
The federal Restaurant
Revitalization Fund is now
taking applications.
The fund, established by
the American Rescue Plan
stimulus package, provides
forgivable,
interest-free
loans to bars, restaurants
and other eating and drink-
ing establishments affected
by COVID-19 shutdowns.
Businesses can apply for
an amount equal to their
2019 gross receipts minus
their 2020 gross receipts,
minus any Paycheck Protec-
tion Program funds already
received. The minimum
amount is $1,000 per busi-
ness, and the maximum is
$10 million. Eligible uses for
the money includes a variety
of business expenses, from
payroll to rent, and recipi-
ents are not required to pay
back any of the money as
long as it is used for eligi-
ble expenses no later than
March 2023.
Applications opened May
3. For more information,
or to apply, visit the Small
Business
Administration
website at sba.gov/fund-
ing-programs/loans/covid-
19-relief-options/restau-
rant-revitalization-fund.