This week, Sierra Club intervened before the West Virginia Public Service Commission to oppose the fourth bailout requested by Monongahela Power Co. (“Mon Power”) for a polluting West Virginia coal plant. The Sierra Club is represented by attorneys from Appalachian Mountain Advocates.
Mon Power’s latest request is just one in a line of attempts by the company and its corporate parent, FirstEnergy, to saddle West Virginia ratepayers with the costs and risks of operating expensive and dirty coal plants. In 2013, Mon Power purchased the Harrison plant from a FirstEnergy nonregulated subsidiary -- thereby shifting all the costs and risks associated with the plant to ratepayers. A recent report analyzing the economic impact of the Harrison bailout shows that, contrary to the companies’ projections at the time, ratepayers ended up on the hook for increased costs.
“This is the second time Mon Power has asked the PSC to bail out this particular uncompetitive coal plant,” said Jim Kotcon, Chapter Chair for the Sierra Club’s West Virginia Chapter. “Mon Power claims that the Grant Town plant produces ‘environmental benefits,’ and if it actually did, you can be sure the Sierra Club would support that. But the so-called environmental benefits are really a sham to keep operating a polluting power plant. It costs about $90/MWH to operate this plant while the average market price is closer to half that much. Local ratepayers should not be on the hook for this expensive, dirty coal plant. The PSC should reject Mon Power’s request.”
Earlier this year, Mon Power sought approval of a similar bailout for the Pleasants plant. That plant is currently owned by an unregulated FirstEnergy subsidiary, but Mon Power has proposed to purchase the plant and shift the costs and risks from FirstEnergy shareholders to West Virginia ratepayers. Also this year, the PSC rejected an earlier attempt by FirstEnergy to bail out the Grant Town plant.
In its most recent request, Mon Power has sought the amendment of a power purchase agreement that would raise rates in order to prop up the dirty, uncompetitive coal plant in Grant Town, Marion County. Strikingly, both Mon Power and the plant’s operator admit that continued operation of the plant does not make economic sense unless that operation is subsidized by West Virginia ratepayers.