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This article originally provided by
WV Metro News
April 15, 2008
Appalachian Power Plans Appeal
MetroNews Talkline
Mason County
Appalachian President Dana Waldo On Plant Decision
The President and Chief Operating Officer of Appalachian Power says
they'll ask the Virginia State Corporation Commission to look again
at the company's proposal for a $2.23 billion clean coal power plant
in West Virginia.
On Monday, Virginia's Commission denied Appalachian Power's request
to build the plant in Mason County. "We'll provide some more detail
to address their concerns," Dana Waldo says of the appeal. "We put
on, I think, a very powerful case about the IGCC (Integrated
Gasification Combined Cycle) technology, the need for the power
plant and the need to use coal."
As proposed, the plant would turn coal into gas. It's a process that
company officials say would help with the removal of pollutants.
Approval from Virginia regulators is needed because Appalachian
customers in Virginia will help pay for the plant to be built. A
request for increased rates, from Appalachian Power and parent
company American Electric Power, to start recouping some of those
construction costs was also denied this week in West Virginia's
neighboring state.
"We're very concerned. We're disappointed. We believe IGCC is
absolutely necessary to keep coal in the fuel mix of this nation and
so we'll be going back to the Virginia Commission and ask them to
reconsider their decision," Waldo said on Tuesday's MetroNews
Talkline.
The Virginia Commission had problem with the estimated cost for the
plant and, because of that, called the proposal an 'extraordinary
risk.' The proposal calls for a monthly surcharge would be added to
customer bills during the four years it would take to build the
site.
West Virginia's Public Service Commission has approved it, saying
it's needed. Waldo uses this analogy. "The forecast calls for rain
tomorrow. We want to have an umbrella in our hand and the (Virginia)
Commission align did not align itself with that concept."
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