Terry, thanks for your frontline reporting. You've probably posted this piece on the McNeil Generating Station before, in which case I apologize for not paying attention earlier:
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/biomass_proponents_in_western.html I was most interested to read that the plant's owners now admit it would have been a finer thing not to build the plant in the middle of town but rather on the outskirts, nearer to the forest. The town residents' main complaint was a result of this poor decision: a fine dust from the woodchips coating everything in town. The plant owners responded by covering the unloading area, and the plant brings the town of Burlington $1M yearly in taxes, so it seems to be working out well for all involved.
Laidlaw does not have the luxury of building their plant outside of the town in Berlin, but perhaps the McNeil plant offers a model for remediation. As a shareholder of LLEG, I would certainly hope for a management that is as responsive to the needs of Berliners as McNeil's management has been in Burlington.
By the way, I've been to Burlington a couple of times, and I can't even recall the biomass power station. That is probably more a reflection on my powers of observation than anything else, but to me it nonetheless suggests that a power station in the center of town need not completely dominate the town.