Commissioners Bloom, Hawkins, and Sikora

NOTICE — On December 16, 2020, the Monongalia County Commission sitting in Morgantown, WV, adopted “payment in-lieu of taxes” or PILOT agreements on behalf of two proposed projects, The Mountain State Clean Energy LLC is a 1200 MW plant to be fired with natural gas AND Mountain State Renewables LLC is a 70 MW solar panel array facility. Both are proposed for Ft. Martin, WV, north of Morgantown and essentially on the Mason Dixon Line.

Two coal-fired power plants already operate at Ft. Martin, the Ft. Martin plant at 1100 MW and the Longview Power facility at 700 MW. Both use stack gas scrubbers for sulfur dioxide control, but generate thousands of tons of coal ash and scrubber waste for local disposal continuously.

The Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition and the WV Sierra Club opposed the proposed gas-fired “Clean” energy plant for various reasons including the excessive greenhouse gases (GHG) that will be generated. The protest list below was presented to the Mon County Commission before the vote.

Both Mountain State PILOT Agreements were approved in a single resolution three (3) to zero (0). A PILOT Agreement for the coal-fired Longview Energy plant has been in force from the beginning of its operation in 2011 and remains active for the foreseeable future.

SEE MEETING VIDEO HERE: Monongalia County Commission Dec. 16, 2020 – YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt8DLPYF7ic

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PROTEST MEMORANDUM FROM M.V.C.A.C. PRESENTED ORALLY ON DECEMBER 16, 2020

RE: AGENDA OF MON. COUNTY COMM. FOR 12/16/20. Item C. To consider approval of documents related to Mountain State Clean Energy LLC & Mountain State Renewable LLC

1. These activities today are too important to our County, State and Nation to be finalized without the full and open consideration that informs the public, provides time for consideration and provides a public comment process.

2. The name Mountain State Clean Energy LLC is very inappropriate, misleading and inconsistent with the industry and with public usage. This proposed fossil fueled power plant will involve thousands of tons of emissions and effluents including acid gases, fine and ultrafine particulates, as well as greenhouse gases galore; it will not be “clean.”

3. The Conditions # 4 and 5 of the FACILITY DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT(s) specify that the power company will hold the “Deed” and this Monongalia County Commission will hold the “Lease” during plant operations, over 30 years. If that is the case, this Commission will not actually own the facility, so said facility will not be exempt of ad valorem taxes.

4. Should the power company become bankrupt, their possession of the Deed will put our County at the mercy of the bankruptcy court. So, this problem should be corrected so that Monongalia County is the holder of the Deed.

5. Should this PILOT agreement be declared illegal or unconstitutional, which is quite possible, given that such questions are currently before the West Virginia courts, then the fact that the power company holds the Deed will be problematic. So, these problems should be corrected so that Monongalia County is the holder of the Deed.

6. Alternatively, a third party Trustee should be designated as the Deed holder so as to protect all parties to these agreements from these unanticipated circumstances.

7. Our Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition (MVCAC) provided this Commission yesterday with copies to each Commissioner of a West Virginia Law Review article entitled “PILOT AGREEMENTS IN WEST VIRGINIA: A TALE OF TURBULENT TAXATION.” This document was published on December 13, 2020, just this week, and brings forward many issues, including that PILOT agreements are not well established in the law.

8. Finally, on Monday of this week, the WVU Center for Energy & Sustainable Development issued an extensive and in-depth report titled “West Virginia’s Energy Future.” This presents a plan to ramp up renewable energy to decrease costs, reduce risks, and strengthen economic opportunities here in West Virginia. This report is the subject of in-depth articles today in both the Morgantown Dominion Post and in the Charleston Gazette Mail. The full report is now available on the World Wide Web (Internet).

Duane G. Nichols, Coordinator, Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition,
330 Dream Catcher Circle, Morgantown, WV 26508.

“it’s not easy being green”

From an Article by David Beard, Morgantown Dominion Post, January 6, 2020

MORGANTOWN — Some members of the green community assembled on the Courthouse Square Monday afternoon to protest the proposed construction of two new Longview Power plants – one gas-fired, one solar.

The Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition and the West Virginia Sierra Club chapter put on the press conference and timed it to precede a Public Service Commission public hearing on the proposed plants to be held inside the Courthouse.

Duane Nichols, with the Coalition, who lives in Stewartstown said the impacts of the current coal-fired Longview plant and its coal-fired neighbor, Fort Martin, can be seen for miles: The steam plumes block sunshine and affect the weather in that area.

And less than 40% of the fuel energy burned is converted to electrical energy generated, he said. The rest escapes as waste heat. Along with that, “the tonnage of carbon dioxide day after day is adding to that atmosphere.”

The daily truck traffic serving the plant, he said, also creates a nuisance for residents in the area of the plant, over 300 loaded coal trucks per day going up the long Ft. Martin hill.

Longview Power is negotiating a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement for the two plants with Monongalia County that would provide the county with about $58.2 million across 30 years. Jarryd Powell, with the Greater Morgantown Sunrise Movement, sited a report from the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy to highlight what he sees as a flawed agreement.

The WVCBP report says that Mon County would be giving up about $217 million in additional property taxes from alternate, fully taxed uses of the property – which Longview owns.

Powell said, “These $217 million could address green energy investment, improved healthcare, education, infrastructure and many other important issues in Mon County. … This measure simply appears to be a private entity extorting Mon County residents over their rightful tax dollars and preying on our desperation for jobs.”

Jonah Kone, also with Sunrise, focused on the environmental impacts. “In 30 years, I would like to live and work on a healthy planet.”

Lira Reins, with the West Virginia healthy Kids and Families Coalition, said the PILOT will provide less value to the county that the current Longview and Fort Martin PILOTs. The new PILOT would from $1.5 million to $2.5 million per year, while the current Longview PILOT brings in about $3.5 million and Fort Martin about $3.4 million.

Jim Kotcon, Sierra Club conservation chair, said Longview II – the gas-fired plant — will emit 4 million tons of greenhouse gases per year “That’s 4 million tons that will continue to warm the climate.”

Also, he said, there’s no need for the electricity it will produce. “Our region is already dramatically oversupplied with electricity.” He cited testimony to that effect submitted to the PSC. “If demand is not going up and supply increases, somebody’s going away.” Other speakers suggested Fort Martin might be the plant that would fall victim.

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See also: PILOT Agreements Cost State Millions in Tax Revenue: An In-Depth Look at Longview Power Plant, Ted Boettner, WV Center on Budget & Policy, October 15, 2019

ESC Harrison Power Plant conceptual layout

From an Article by Charles Young, WV News, April 13, 2019

CLARKSBURG — Following several years of planning, the developers of a natural-gas-fired power plant planned for a site in Clarksburg’s Montpelier Addition hope to begin construction this summer.

The plant will be West Virginia’s first gas-fired facility. A firm date for the start of construction has not been set and will depend on factors like weather and the finalization of agreements with local entities like the Clarksburg Water Board and the Sanitary Board. Developers expect work to begin in June or July.

The Harrison County Power Plant, a project of Energy Solutions Consortium and Caithness Energy, will be an approximately 630-megawatt generation facility, which is enough electricity to power approximately 425,000 homes, according to project representatives.

During the plant’s construction phase, which is expected to take around 24 months, the plant will support 400 jobs and will rely on local union laborers. Developers are aiming for an estimated in-service date of November 2021.

The company estimates the annual overall economic impact of the plant will be about $880 million, and it is expected to provide up to 30 permanent, well-paid positions during the plant’s operating life.

Todd Waldrop, project director, attended the Clarksburg Water Board’s March 12 meeting and asked its members to consider an alternate main water line extension agreement between the utility and the company. Under the terms of the proposed agreement, the Water Board would serve as the sole supplier of water to the power plant through a dedicated main line, Waldrop said. “We want to construct the lateral for the line from North Ohio Avenue up to the fence line of where the facility will be,” he said. “It’s about a 2,500-foot run.”

The power plant is expected to require an average of around 80 gallons per minute. Energy Solutions Consortium would foot the bill for construction of the main line and would build it to “the Water Board’s standards,” Waldrop said.

Power plant developers also met with representatives of the Clarksburg Sanitary Board on March 12 and pitched a similar agreement for sanitary services via an alternate mainline sewer extension agreement. Clarksburg City Manager Martin Howe, who also serves as chairman of the Sanitary Board, said the board’s members are considering the agreement but have yet to take action.

“This is a very significant project to Harrison County and the region,” he said. “The city is fortunate to be in the position that allows for this development to occur. Without continued investment in our infrastructure, the opportunity would most likely not be able to proceed further.”

John Black, vice president of development for the power plant project, said finalization of these two agreements is “critical.”

“It’s a very stingy plant. It doesn’t use very much water at all. Originally, we had proposed taking it out of the river, but the Clarksburg Water Board and the Clarksburg Sanitary Board were able to meet that supply,” he said. “I think that’s a much better situation for the environment because we’re using water that the city is already producing and we are putting it back in the sewer.”

John Wanalista, director of engineering and project management, said developers are still in the middle of negotiations with the project’s potential contractor. “We’re still in negotiations with an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor,” he said. “We’re not at liberty to indicate who that is at this point.”

Even if the water and sewer agreements aren’t fully finalized by the time the contractor is ready to begin work, there are other alternatives, Wanalista said. “If water and sewer are not there on Day One, there are other ways to obtain the waters that are needed,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot of water needed during the initial stages of construction.”

During a recent meeting, Water Board General Manager Dick Welch said installing a temporary water line to supply the project would take less than a “day or so.”

While some residents may have concerns about the construction of a power plant in Montpelier Addition, the project will be much smaller and much less visible than other area facilities, like the Harrison Power Station or the Longview Power Plant near Maidsville, Black said. This is because both of those facilities are coal-fired facilities, while the Clarksburg plant will utilize locally produced natural gas, Black said.

For example, the emission stacks on the Longview Plant are over 800 feet tall, Black said. “Ours are less than 200 feet,” he said. “And there are typically no visible emissions out of ours. Where we are, tucked back in that hollow, our stack won’t even exceed the ridge line. Our footprint is smaller than a coal-powered (plant).”

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Energy Solutions Consortium also has plans in the works for a second gas-powered facility in Brooke County. Its Brooke County Power will be a 830 megawatt natural gas power plant capable of powering the equivalent of 700,000 homes.

The $884 million facility is expected to consume $177.5 million worth of natural gas annually, supporting hundreds of jobs in the region associated with the natural gas industry, according to developers.

The facility will require up to 30 full-time and part-time employees. In addition to the jobs onsite, the project is expected to create 1,164 direct, indirect and induced jobs due to requirements for maintenance, supplies, fuel and other needed local services.

The 1640 MW coal-fired Chesterfield Power Plant is on the James River near Richmond, VA

From an Article by Sarah Vogelsong, Virginia Mercury, March 19, 2019

A proposed new natural gas-fired power plant in Charles City County, which, if built, would be among the largest power generators in the state, has sparked few objections, even as other new gas infrastructure has faced a contentious path to approval.

Only three people spoke at a hearing hosted by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality March 5 on the granting of a “prevention of significant deterioration” permit for the planned Chickahominy Power Station.

The permits are required for the construction of any new air pollution source that emits more than 100 tons per year of any of a set of pollutants identified by DEQ, including sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter, among others.

For Charles City Supervisor Bill Coada, who attended DEQ’s March 5 hearing, there was little to fear from the proposed natural gas power station. “Of course we have concerns about the air quality,” he said. But, he added, “if you compare it to a coal-fired unit, you’ll find these are much cleaner.”

The Chickahominy Power Station is being developed by Chickahominy Power, LLC, a subsidiary of Balico, LLC, that was formed for the purpose of developing and operating the facility. Plans submitted to the State Corporation Commission and DEQ describe it as a combined-cycle natural gas generation facility with three turbines that will be capable of producing 1,650 megawatts. By comparison, Dominion Energy’s recently finished Greensville combined cycle power station is 1,588 megawatts and the company’s coal-fired Chesterfield Power Station is the largest fossil-fuel plant in Virginia at 1,640 megawatts.

As an independent power producer, Chickahominy would sell its power directly to the PJM Interconnection wholesale market. Located just over half a mile east of the intersection of Chambers and Roxbury Roads, the project’s 185-acre site surrounds Dominion Energy’s existing Chickahominy Substation and is crossed by two of Dominion’s transmission lines and a Virginia Natural Gas pipeline.

Documents from DEQ show that of 10 proposed emission constituents, seven are above the threshold set by the department to classify a facility as a major stationary source of the pollutant. These include three types of particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and carbon dioxide equivalents.

Mary Finley-Brook, an associate professor of geography and environmental science at the University of Richmond aired concerns about the level of emissions that the plant is expected to produce at the March 5 hearing and recommended that the project be sent to the State Air Pollution Control Board for review.

“The one actually that concerns me the most would be the greenhouse gas emissions, so the carbon dioxide equivalent,” she told DEQ. “One of the main reasons why I think this permit should be rejected is because we are looking to limit our greenhouse gas emissions from our fossil-fuel sector.”

Steve Fuhrmann of Providence Forge also cited worries about emissions. “We already have a higher incidence than normal of both [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] and asthma in this county, and any additions to our polluting atmosphere … is of great concern,” he said. (VDH maps show that relative to other areas of Virginia, Charles City County and the surrounding region show higher incidences of asthma.)

An engineering report by DEQ has found that “approval of the proposed permit is not expected to cause injury to or interference with … health.” As a further safeguard, the department has also attached to its draft permit the requirement that the facility carry out continuous emissions monitoring, which will constantly track and record the pollutants the power station is producing.

A ‘sudden surge of interest’ in new power production

Still, for some residents, the proposed Chickahominy Power Station is only the tip of the iceberg.

The project is the third major energy generator proposed for the county in the span of four years. In 2015, the Board of Supervisors approved a special use permit for the C4GT power station, another natural gas facility that Michigan-based NOVI Energy says it plans to develop on 88 acres less than a mile from the Chickahominy facility.

The C4GT facility, which has not begun construction (earlier this month, the SCC granted its certificate of public convenience and necessity a two-year extension), has a planned capacity of 1,060 megawatts.

Finally, this spring, the board is considering ambitious plans by Utah-based sPower to construct a 340-megawatt solar farm on more than 2,000 acres of land previously used for timber. While that project has not yet received the special use permit it needs to move forward in the county, the Charles City Planning Commission showed little opposition to it, voting 5-1-1 to recommend its approval.

If all three facilities are built, Charles City County will become one of Virginia’s biggest power producers, according to data collected by DEQ. “Geography has dictated this sudden surge of interest in Charles City County,” Coada said.

Balico director of development Jef Freeman, Jr., said growth in Virginia’s data centers is a primary driver of Balico’s interest in the Chickahominy project. “It’s really driven by the economic activity that’s going on in the region,” he said. “Data centers themselves require significant amounts of energy to support what they do and very reliable power.”

However, many of the companies building data centers are increasingly pushing to power them with renewable energy.

Charles City County, for its part, has highlighted the desire to develop its industrial assets in its 2014 Comprehensive Plan, which calls for the creation of a second industrial park, industrial reserve areas and a new industrial corridor overlay district.

Still, the handful of residents at the March 5 hearing expressed qualms about how the combination of new power generators might affect air quality overall.

Stanley Faggert, the DEQ’s minor new source review coordinator, said the agency had included the projected emissions from the C4GT plant in its air quality modeling for the Chickahominy Power Station. “We do model the background and we take into account existing sources around the facility,” said Michael Dowd, DEQ’s Air and Renewable Energy Division director. “It’s something we look at carefully.”

Fuhrmann asked that if DEQ decides to grant the permit, it take steps to do additional monitoring, as the closest monitoring station, at Shirley Plantation, sits in the opposite direction from prevailing winds relative to the Chickahominy Power Station. Dowd, however, said that the Shirley monitoring station “is darn close as far as monitoring goes” and observed that “many of these air quality impacts are regional in nature and not local.”

For Coada, the question comes down to not only the need for Charles City County to expand economically, but Virginia’s broader attempts to embrace clean energy. “When you look at what it’s replacing,” he said, “it’s actually doing the commonwealth a favor.”

Not everyone agrees. Thomas Hadwin, a former electric and gas utility executive in New York and Michigan who lives in Waynesboro, said that approval of the project “may not be good energy policy in the long run.”

Besides emitting significant amounts of greenhouse gases, he said, the plant would consume a large amount of Virginia Natural Gas’ supply to the region, which VNG has indicated is constrained. Furthermore, Hadwin questioned whether the demand exists in Virginia for two new major natural gas plants.

PJM, the regional transmission organization that coordinates wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, including Virginia, is expecting capacity to significantly outstrip demand in the near future, according to data from the organization. Dominion has said it has no plans to build new combined-cycle natural gas facilities.

And C4GT, which this March petitioned the SCC to extend its certificate of public convenience and necessity for an additional two years, justified the project’s delay on the basis of “unexpected change in market for additional electric generating capacity.”

“These people are trying to move into a marketplace that’s already flooded with capacity,” said Hadwin.

Freeman, however, said that Chickahominy Power would not be pursuing a project that it didn’t think was viable. “There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to determine this kind of project,” he said, adding that “even with the two projects that are proposed, neither are assured of proceeding.”

The comment period for the VA-DEQ’s draft permit for the Chickahominy Power Station ended on March 20, 2019.

Elizabeth Twp. includes Monongahela & Youghiogheny Rivers

Facing opposition, Invenergy eyes second site for Elizabeth gas plant, southeast of Pittsburgh

From an Article by Daniel Moore, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 7, 2017

Facing a lengthy legal dispute with Elizabeth Township, a Chicago-based energy developer wants to move its proposed natural gas-fired power plant to what it hopes will be a less contentious plot of land.

Invenergy, which has for more than a year pursued putting a 550-megawatt plant in the township, is offering Elizabeth commissioners a deal: It will drop its court challenge if they allow the plant to go forward on the site of a scrap yard, roughly 10 miles from the original site. The township’s zoning board rejected the original plan in June.

Nick Cohen, director of thermal development at Invenergy, said he had met with many people who were part of successfully halting the company’s efforts to begin developing the original site along the Youghiogheny River, which had been contaminated with coal sludge and industrial waste in the 1980s.

“The idea is to try to find a site that’s still in Elizabeth Township but not where the people of Mt. Vernon neighborhood will be,” Mr. Cohen said, referring to the community closest to the site proposed last year.

Mr. Cohen said he believes the plant has plenty of backers — the company submitted the names and addresses of nearly 500 supporters as evidence in its court challenge — but hopes the move could help win over more.  “We’ve heard from a lot of the opposition,” he said. “There’s no doubt they’re a force in the township.”

Mr. Cohen was scheduled to appear at a commissioners’ meeting Monday night to share the company’s change of plans. The new site, he said, will be on a property currently owned by Casturo Iron & Metal, a McKeesport company, and used as a junkyard.

The new site is zoned rural-residential, according to county zoning maps, and Mr. Cohen acknowledged the company would have to again seek a change in zoning.

It’s unclear to what extent opponents, some of whom organized under the name Protect Elizabeth Township, would be appeased by the move. The site change would not negate the damage a plant would do to the environment, said Krissy Kasserman, Youghiogheny Riverkeeper.

“Regardless of location, a gas-fired power plant like this has no place in Elizabeth Township,” said Ms. Kasserman, who oversees protection of the entire Youghiogheny watershed. “It’s a residential area. There are a lot of homes nearby. The concerns we had about the Fiore property are the same concerns we have about this property.”

Hearings in the company’s lawsuit, filed in July against the zoning board, have been postponed at least twice.  “We’re committed to Elizabeth Township because there are a lot of people who want to see the benefits,” Mr. Cohen said.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Beech Bottom plant site near old Wheeling Corrugating Plant location

From an Article by Warren Scott, Wheeling Intelligencer, March 4, 2015

Beech Bottom site: WV Route 2 & Ohio River

Wellsburg, WV – A New York energy company has announced it may build two gas-fired power plants on more than 100 acres north of the former Wheeling Corrugating Plant in Beech Bottom.

The Brooke County Commission on Tuesday signed two memorandums of understanding, one for each plant, that officials with the Energy Solutions Consortium said are needed to support plans to build the two plants. Company officials said each plant could bring up to 60 jobs with salaries of $80,000 as well as hundreds of jobs involved in building them.

Curtis Wilkerson, spokesman for Energy Solutions, didn’t know the amount of money that may be expended for the plants’ construction but said the plant planned for Moundsville amounts to a $615 million investment, with a projected economic impact of more than $8 billion.

Wilkerson cautioned that the company has “a long waiting game” ahead, as it must convince the PJM Interconnection of the projects’ feasibility and secure state permits, including a certificate of need from the West Virginia Public Service Commission.

Approval from the PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states, could take several months, he said.

Wilkerson and Brian Helmick, attorney for Energy Solutions, both noted the company hasn’t ruled out other potential sites for the plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania. But Matt Dorn, an owner of the company, told the commissioners, “This is the first step. It’s a big step, and we’re going to do everything we can to make these projects happen.”

The commissioners and leaders of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle said they are optimistic about the endeavor. Commission President Tim Ennis praised the efforts of BDC leaders Pat Ford and Marvin Six in bringing four businesses to the former corrugating plant within a few years and in attracting Energy Solutions to build north of it.

Six, the BDC’s assistant director, stressed the new plants won’t supplant businesses operating in the corrugating plant.

Bill D’Alesio, chairman of the BDC’s board of directors, and fellow board member John Frankovitch also credited Hackman Capital Partners of Los Angeles – which bought the property through bankruptcy proceedings for Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel and sold it to the BDC for future development – and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which awarded a $225,000 grant for the property’s rehabilitation.

Commissioner Jim Andreozzi said the site’s proximity to two natural gas lines, the Ohio River and affordable barge transportation needed during the construction have been selling points for the project.

Notes: The upper Ohio River valley in West Virginia is a very depressed area economically so industrial development is welcomed whole-heartedly.  But, the continued use of fossil fuels while the officials of the State suppress the development of alternative energy is shameful.  Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere now exceed 400 ppm and the scientific studies on the effects of global warming are alarming. DGN

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

New Gas-Fired Power Plant

Marshall County plans for natural gas combined cycle power plant

Based on an Article from the Staff, State Journal, April 24, 2014

Members of the Marshall County Commission approved a resolution April 22 regarding a tax agreement with Moundsville Power LLC to advance plans for a $615 million natural gas combined cycle power plant.

Moundsville Power LLC is a single purpose development company formed by a group of western New York businessmen.. The group is planning to construct a 549 megawatt natural gas combined cycle power plant on a 37.5 acres south of Moundsville. This site is currently owned by Honeywell International. The location is next to a Williams Energy fractionator and commonly known as the Allied Chemical site.

This $615 million plant is a base load facility generating power 24 hours per day.. The power is expected to be sold into the PJM Interconnection, a wholesale electricity transmission organization. Moundsville Power cited an economic impact study from Tom Witt of Economics LLC in Morgantown that estimates more than 400 construction jobs will be created during the plant’s estimated 30-month construction period.

Moundsville Power Spokesman Andrew W. Dorn Jr. said union craft labor will build the plant and it will be managed under a National Maintenance Agreement.

The project still needs to obtain state and federal approvals to develop and build the plant, but organizers anticipate construction to begin in 2015 and operations to begin by 2018. An application for an air quality permit with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection was filed October 7, 2013 by Moundsville Power LLC, but it has yet to be approved.

According to a December 2012 briefing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, both Honeywell and Olin Corporation had been performing various cleanup activities at the site under the oversight of the EPA. Those activities included constructing a hazardous waste landfill and installing a soil vapor extraction system. Allied Signal operated the site from 1953 until 1980. The North Plant and the South Plant had “distinctly different chemical processes,” according to the EPA, with vastly different chemicals used at each.

The project is being dubbed the first “downstream” project proposed to utilize natural gas produced in Marshall County and throughout the Upper Ohio Valley. Don Rigby, executive director of the Regional Economic Development Partnership said his organization had been working with the Moundsville Power development team for more than a year “and will continue to provide assistance to help them as they work through the project’s development.

The PILOT or Payment in Lieu of Tax Agreement. The PILOT Agreement sets a fixed amount of property taxes to be paid on the project for 30 years and allows developers to seek financing with a predetermined property tax liability. The $4.2 million in PILOT payments will stay the same under the agreement, even if future levy rates are reduced. The agreement still requires approval from the Marshall County Board of Education. PILOT payments generated by the project would be treated the same as property tax payments and would be distributed to both Marshall County Schools and the commission.

The Marshall County Commission also must consider a resolution for a lease for the project, to work in conjunction with the PILOT agreement. KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., based in Cleveland, will act as the exclusive project finance advisor.

Moundsville Power will contract with a consortium made up of CH2M Hill and General Electric. CH2M is expected to build the plant and provide construction and operating guarantees and GE is expected to provide the natural gas turbines and power island equipment as well as a long-term contractual services agreement to ensure the efficient operation of the power project.

The plant plans to use GE 7.04 gas turbines in a two-by-one-configuration, according to Moundsville Power, explaining that the heat and rotational energy produced by the combustion of natural gas in a gas turbine will produce electricity. In turn, the exhaust heat from that process will be used to produce steam which then will drive a steam turbine to produce additional electricity without the use of additional natural gas, making the plant more fuel-efficient.