April 20, 2010
EKPC takes one step
forward, one step back

By Bill Robinson
Senior News Writer

RICHMOND — The approval process for the new coal-fired electricity generating plant that East Kentucky Power Cooperative wants to building near the Kentucky River in Clark County took one step forward April 9 when the Kentucky Division of Air Quality granted it a provisional permit.

Just one week later, on April 16, the process took a step in the opposite direction when the co-op withdrew a request to the Kentucky Public Service Commission for permission to increase its debt by $921 million to finance construction of the plant.

Winchester-based EKPC supplies power to 18 distribution co-ops that serve 87 counties, including Clark Energy and Bluegrass Energy that serve customers in Madison County.

Even as opponents of the plant celebrated the withdrawal of EKPC’s request for increased borrowing authority, co-op spokesperson Nick Comer said too much should not be read into the move. The co-op fully intends to submit the request again in the not-to-distant future, he said.

The plants’ opponents include a number of the distribution co-ops’ members as well as three Berea-based environmental groups, the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and the Kentucky branch of the Sierra Club. All say they will challenge the plant’s air quality permit and its request for borrowing authority.

The environmentalists were particularly irked when the state air regulatory agency granted the permit on the day before more-stringent federal standards were to take effect, said Elizabeth Crowe of the environmental foundation.

The action shows the Division of Air Quality favor coal and utility interests over the health of Kentuckians, she said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has 60 days to review the state agency’s action, said Robert Ukeiley, a Berea-based environmental lawyer. If the EPA approves the permit, opponents have 30 days to challenge it, which they will do, Crowe said.

The environmentalists claim EKPC could eliminate the need for expanded generating capacity if it invested a comparable amount of money to assist customers in reducing demand by installing insulation and switching to more efficient lighting and heating/cooling systems.

“You don’t need permits from environmental regulators to do that,” Crowe said, “because there’s no pollution, regardless of how limited, when you use less electricity.”

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.