Source: Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)

Letter to Editor of Morgantown Dominion Post, Jim Kotcon, August 27, 2017

Your August 21st editorial criticizing the proposal by Gov. Jim Justice to use taxpayer dollars to provide a $15 per ton subsidy for coal was correct. Gov. Justice may have changed his registration to Republican, but this proposal illustrates that his “tax and spend” mentality has not changed. Fortunately, it is doubtful that such a crackpot idea will ever be approved.

But a more insidious and serious threat looms for West Virginians. Our local utility, Mon Power, is proposing to bail out its Ohio affiliate by purchasing an outdated and uncompetitive power plant.

The Pleasants plant is over 30 years old, and has the highest emissions of sulfur dioxide of any conventional coal-fired plant in West Virginia.

This plant cannot compete on the open market in Ohio, but if the transfer to Mon Power is approved, we ratepayers will be forced to guarantee a profit to Mon Power stockholders, regardless of whether the plant is needed or cost-effective. Good deal for them, bad for us.

This has happened before. In 2009, First Energy installed $700 million scrubbers at the Hatfields Ferry plant, then closed it in 2013. Check your most recent electric bill, and you will find an “Environmental Control Charge” that we are still paying for those costs, even though the plant is closed.

Also in 2013, Mon Power acquired the Harrison plant, promising that it would lower our electric bills. Instead, a recent study found that Mon Power ratepayers have paid more than $160 million more for electricity than if the transfer had not occurred.

The West Virginia Sierra Club and Mountaineers for Progress will host a public forum on this issue at the Mon Arts Center at 7 p.m. September 7th. The state Public Service Commission will hold a hearing on the plant transfer at 6 p.m. September 12th, at the Monongalia County Courthouse.

If you are tired of paying ever-increasing electric bills so that out-of-state investors are guaranteed a profit at your expense, please come to these events and let our public officials know how you feel.

>>> Jim Kotcon, West Virginia Sierra Club, Morgantown

What about WV's Integrated Resource Plans

Dear Friends in WV & elsewhere:

Help make sure West Virginia’s electric utilities put their customers first.

This year, our electric utilities will be writing long term plans, called Integrated Resource Plans, for how they will power West Virginia. The West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) will issue its order for the utilities to begin drafting their plans by March 31st, helping to guide utilities long-term plans.

These plans could be written in secret in corporate backrooms and continue the status quo of polluting and increasingly expensive coal-fired electricity generation — or they can be written with public input to put increasingly affordable clean energy and energy efficiency front and center. Studies have shown that there are thousands of jobs to gain and hundreds of millions of dollars to save across West Virginia through strong energy efficiency programs, but we need to continue speaking out to make clean, efficient, affordable energy a reality in West Virginia. (Reference below.)

Write the Public Service Commissioners now to let them know that you want to them to issue an order for long-term energy plans that focuses on clean, affordable energy and public participation.

Send a message to the West Virginia PSC for long-term energy planning that focuses on clean, affordable energy and public participation.

As a life-long resident of West Virginia, having grown up in Beckley, I’ve seen firsthand the effects of collusion between big business and government officials when they are not held accountable to the people they serve and represent. Corporate interests have held back development in this state by clinging to outdated, polluting technologies. As a student of economics at West Virginia University and a state activist, I’ve made it my mission to promote a truly progressive path towards safe, clean, and efficient energy policy that will lead to prosperity for all West Virginians. Will you join me in speaking out for affordable and clean energy that puts the residents of West Virginia first?

Let Public Service Commissioners Michael Albert and Brooks McCabe know that you support an effective and consumer friendly Integrated Resource Plan — send your message today!

Together, we can make a difference in the decision making process and secure an environmentally and financially sound future for all of West Virginia. By working towards an effective Integrated Resource Plan, we will help to make this a reality.

Thanks for all you do to protect the environment,

Travis Boothe
Policy Team Leader, Energy Efficiency Campaign
West Virginia Sierra Club

Reference: Save Money, Create Jobs: How Energy Efficiency Can Work for West Virginia, Optimal Energy, November 2012

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Four Trucks in Five Minutes

SWA Opposes Disposal “Cell” in Wetzel Landfill

From an Article by Lauren Matthews, Wetzel Chronicle, March 11. 2015

Bill Hughes of Wetzel County Solid Waste Authority appeared before the Wetzel County Commission March 4 to give updates regarding a case before the Public Service Commission.

The case in question is Case Number 13-0832-SWF-CN, named Lackawanna Transport Company, dba Wetzel County Landfill. The case deals with the Wetzel County Landfill’s application for an amendment to their Certificate of Need. The fulfillment of this application would enable the landfill to build a special cell where drilling companies could dispose of drilling waste.

Hughes noted that the case started in June 2013. He added that 96 letters have since been sent into the PSC regarding the case, all but one objecting to the landfill’s application. A decision is expected within the next several months, with final briefs being filed in mid-March.

Hughes expressed criticism of the legislature in that “there’s a lot of loose ends that the legislature did not account for,” when passing bills regarding disposal of drilling waste. “The PSC doesn’t know what to do with this case,” Hughes noted.

“The legislature says to take the drill waste to landfills,” Hughes noted, but added that “we don’t have proper waste characterization,” expressing concern about possible hazardous materials in the waste. Hughes noted that in the past two years the Wetzel County Landfill has taken “half a million tons” of drilling waste, that is only “partially characterized.”

Hughes noted that Cider Run Road, which leads to the landfill, is “trashed.” “The roads are torn up. All the trucks are now going to a well pad. There is a well pad above the landfill . . . all that traffic – the municipal solid waste traffic, drill cuttings traffic, a holding pond up there . . . all that uses one road. It has caused a lot of congestion, and it’s in deplorable condition.”

Hughes noted that with all the drill waste the landfill has taken in, and consequent revenue, “you’d think they could fix the roads.”

“There’s a lot of residential traffic on those roads,” Hughes notes, adding that a local resident testified before the PSC as to all of the trucks damaging the roads.”

Hughes stated that the State is not quite willing to help. “As you guys know, Charleston folks tend to live in Charleston. I have not been able to convey to them that this is an inconvenience for the neighbors.”

“This landfill now has a 40-year lifespan based on current consumption,” Hughes stated, noting that the landfill previously had a 120 year lifespan.

“Drilling has slowed down, but it’s a temporary lull,” Hughes added. “We have many unresolved issues, some environmental, some traffic, and everything in between. We have yet to have a clue as to what’s going in the ground.”

Hughes referenced House Bill 107, which imposes a dollar per ton fee put on drilling waste, “that goes to the state to help repair the roads.” “Nothing has happened,” he added, noting that the fee is not dedicated just to the landfill operation. “It’s any road affected by drilling operations.”

“I have thousands of photographs,” Hughes stated. “You have 200 trucks going through there per day. I sat there myself for two hours, and saw 20 trucks going one way and then the other road. It’s absurd to allow that road, which is a residential traffic road, to get in that condition. I was down there yesterday, and it’s getting worse with the freezing and thawing. There are fractured pieces of roads; it’s all busted up. They need to have it widened, with a ditch and drainage.”

“The money is there, but there is no political will to let it happen.”

The current case involving the WCSWA and the Wetzel County Landfill (owned and operated by Lackawanna Transport Company) can be found on the West Virginia Public Service Commission’s site, accessed at www.psc.state.wv.us.

After accessing the website, choose “Case Information” from the menu on the right hand side of the page. Then choose “Case” under the Search heading on the right hand side of the next page. Several options are available. Choose to search by Case Number, and in the drop-down menu choose “Is.” 13-0832-SWF-CN

Cider Run Road 1-19-2015

Click the case number link, and then choose “Count total letter . . . ” Choose the case number link again, and this will lead you to all activity records involved in the case. Visible under Case 13-0832-SWF-CN’s files on the website are opening statements from counsel for both the WCSWA and Wetzel County Landfill (Lackawanna Transport Company – LTC)

Dan Heyman of the West Virginia Public News Service wrote the article below, as published on July 13, 2012:

Gas Utilities Seek Hikes Despite Dropping Nat Gas Prices

CHARLESTON, W. Va. – Despite record low prices for natural gas, West Virginia utilities are asking the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) to confirm sharp rate hikes. Mountaineer and Dominion Hope both want the PSC to rule in their favor on rate requests based on higher natural gas costs.

Clarksburg resident Steve Perdue pays Hope about $75 a month. He says the hike seems ‘weird’ when, all around him, he can see the Marcellus boom that has driven natural gas prices to a near-record low. “It’s overwhelmed the area, there’s so much gas that they’re getting. We just can’t see why they would be getting rate increases when the price of their basic raw material has gone way down.”

According to West Virginia Affiliated Construction Trades (ACT), Dominion Hope is asking the PSC to confirm a 30 percent increase in the part of the bill that goes to pay for the gas. The company says overall, bills would only go up by 17 percent, and that the rate increase is part of a standard annual procedure for utilities to recover money for legitimate, regulated costs.

However, says Perdue, a lot people can’t afford the increase. “Times are pretty tough, especially for our seniors. We’ve got a lot of people laid off. People on fixed income and your just average working person. It’s tough on a family.”

According to Dominion Hope, the company does not make any money from recapturing the cost of buying natural gas. But critics say that’s not true for Hope’s sister company. Hope used a financial hedging program to set the price it paid for gas. Through the complex financial deals, another branch of the Dominion conglomerate could have made as much as $20 million off of Hope’s purchases.

To Perdue, that doesn’t sound right. “They’re in a no-lose situation, collecting all the way around. One of their diversified companies might lose money, and they’ll ask for money to recoup that loss. But on the other end, they’re making the money.”

ACT and AARP are among the groups opposing some of the rate hikes.

Click here to view this story on the Public News Service RSS site and access an audio version of this and other stories.

 http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/27421-1