Ryegate owner asks House committee for one-year extension to meet efficiency upgrade tied to PPA

Montpelier — The new owner of the Ryegate biomass power plant asked the Vermont House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure on May 20 for a one-year extension to meet a 50% efficiency upgrade required under the plant’s power purchase agreement that runs through 2032.

Liddy Carter, principal at Mizzen Capital and who said she became owner of Ryegate about three weeks earlier, told the committee the plant has been working to complete a major efficiency retrofit but that plans to import specialized dryers and other equipment were upended by financing withdrawals and recent tariffs. “What we’re asking for is a year,” Carter said, adding that the extra time would let the company re‑engineer the project with U.S.-sourced equipment and avoid costly mistakes in a complex retrofit.

The request came at a hearing previewing a proposed Senate amendment to H.319 that would give Ryegate an additional 12 months to meet conditions tied to its purchase power agreement (PPA). The committee took no formal vote; members discussed scheduling a straw poll and further testimony from state agencies before the House acts.

Why it matters: State forestry officials, loggers and industry groups told the committee that Ryegate and the McNeil plant in Burlington are among the only local markets for large volumes of low‑grade wood. Oliver Pearson, director of the Division of Forests at the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (FPR), told the committee Ryegate buys about 250,000 tons of wood chips a year and produces roughly 20 megawatts of electricity. "Ryegate provides a market for low‑grade wood chips — about 250,000 tons per year — that helps make sustainable forest management financially viable," Pearson said.

FPR presented state data showing that Ryegate purchased 31% of its chips from Vermont loggers in the reported year — about 82,500 tons at roughly $40 per ton, which Pearson estimated translated to roughly $3.3 million in direct payments to Vermont loggers. The agency also summarized a contingency report that warned of significant economic impacts if Ryegate closed: lost chip purchases from Vermont, reduced baseload electricity generation and an estimated $14 million in related economic activity that would vanish without the plant.

New owner’s case: Carter said Mizzen Capital, a Small Business Administration‑licensed small business investment company, stepped in after the prior owners were unable to complete the planned European equipment retrofit. She described efforts in recent months to buy a large used wood‑chip dryer located in North Carolina and to re‑engineer the heat recovery approach so the plant can dry chips and burn them internally to raise combustion efficiency. Carter said tariffs and the withdrawal of overseas equipment financing in February ended previous purchase orders and a letter of intent from a Canadian buyer for dried chips, making the original plan unviable.

Dan St. Launche (as he identified himself in testimony), a regional chip buyer and trucker who has been coordinating payments to loggers for Ryegate deliveries, told the committee that payments to suppliers have improved under the new ownership. He said he had organized weekly payments and personally advanced funds during the prior ownership shortfalls.

Industry testimony: Dan Duran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, told the committee he and his members supported a one‑year extension provision in H.319 (Section 33 of the draft bill) if Ryegate continues to meet conditions enacted in 2024 under Act 142, including timely payment to contractors and documented progress on efficiency upgrades. "The loss of any wood‑energy market can have catastrophic consequences," Duran said, adding that contractors’ viability and sustainable forest management depend on reliable local markets.

Gwen Zachoff, lobbyist for the Vermont Forest Products Association, and several loggers who testified in person described Ryegate and McNeil as foundational buyers for low‑grade material — limbs, crowns and other byproducts that otherwise have limited markets. Heath Funnel, owner of HP Logging, said losing Ryegate would force some contractors to scale back operations and could make it uneconomic to carry out some forest management work.

Regulatory context and harvesting policy: FPR and Fish & Wildlife officials told the committee suppliers to Ryegate must follow harvesting protocols tied to the plant’s certificate of public good and related agreements. Pearson said the legislature asked the Agency of Natural Resources to update those harvesting policies last year; FPR submitted recommended updates and said it hopes the plant’s new owners will finalize revisions and keep the stricter site‑specific procedures in place.

Committee next steps: Committee members said they planned additional briefings and a straw poll before taking formal action. Representative Kathleen James, chair of the committee, and staff outlined a schedule that included testimony from the Department of Economic Development and the Department of Public Service and a planned straw poll later in the week, followed by possible floor action if the Senate completes its work on the amendment.

No formal committee motion or vote on a Ryegate extension was taken at the May 20 hearing.

(Reporting note: Quotes and attributions in this article come from the committee hearing transcript and the witnesses listed below.)