The Mississippi Sierra Club Applauds The Mississippi Public Service Commission Action Regarding Expensive Dirty Coal Plant Proposal
June 9 2009
Contact:
Louie Miller 601-624-3503
The Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) ruled Friday that Ms. Power Company (MPCO) proposed Kemper County IGCC Lignite Coal plant will not get “fast tracked” as demanded by the MPCO attorneys. “We welcome and applaud the action of the MPSC commissioners”; stated Louie Miller; State Director of the Sierra Club in Mississippi. “The MPSC has once again proven that there is a new sheriff in town and it is not business as usual. The Commissioners take very seriously their role in protecting the public’s pocketbook while providing reliable and affordable electricity.”
The Sierra Club strongly feels that this MPSC investigation into this proposal will reveal that this risky unproven technology; Integrated Gas Combined Cycle (IGCC) will without doubt prove to be the most expensive and dirty way to generate electric power hands down. On a per megawatt basis IGCC is not even in the ballpark of being cost effective. This $2.5 billion dollar boondoggle proposal was being rushed by MPCO so as to avoid the scrutiny it deserves. Obviously there are numerous options to be considered before the State of Mississippi goes down the path of saddling rate payers for decades to come with billions of dollars of debt.
The only conceivable reason for such a costly proposal is to enrich MPCO and its stockholders at the Mississippi rate payers expense. Unlike other business MPCO and Entergy/MS are guaranteed up to a 12% rate of return on every dollar they spend; therefore the more they spend the more they make. Currently’ there is almost 3 times the peak demand of power for the entire state of Mississippi in clean natural gas; built and sitting idle. Why?
The Commission stated as part of its order that these other energy options should be given serious consideration along with Energy Efficiency and other important steps to move Mississippi toward a clean, affordable energy future; rather than repeating the mistakes of the past.
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