Jeremy Richardson ~ senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists

From an Article by Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette Mail, October 13, 2021

PHOTO ~ Marion County native Jeremy Richardson, a senior energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, is pictured during an online event Wednesday touting the release of a report he coauthored calling for full remediation of coal ash disposal sites in the Ohio River Valley. The analysis relies on public documents from utility closure plans, coal ash site conditions, economic modeling and alternative closure plan development.

Regional and national clean energy advocacy groups united Wednesday (10/13/21) to release a report suggesting that cleaning up hazardous coal ash in the Ohio River Valley could benefit the area economically as well as environmentally.

The new report “Repairing the Damage ~ Cleaning Up Hazardous Coal Ash Can Create Jobs and Improve the Environment” makes the case that fully remediating coal ash disposal sites would create more jobs and protect communities as more coal plants close in the region amid the nation’s clean energy transition.

The economic analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists, a national science advocacy nonprofit, and the Ohio River Valley Institute, a Johnstown, Pennsylvania-based nonprofit think tank, cited case studies of two coal ash sites in Kentucky and Ohio finding that full remediation of the sites would create more than $100 million in additional economic activity in each state.

“My excitement about the report is because you just have so much of an opportunity to create so much benefit to the people in the communities that we’re talking about,” said Marion County native Jeremy Richardson, a senior energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists who coauthored the report.

Those communities are economically vulnerable coal communities where coal ash — waste left behind when coal is burned to produce electricity — is a common threat to human health.

Approximately 102 million tons of coal ash was produced in 2018 alone, according to the American Coal Ash Association, an organization that promotes the environmentally responsible use of coal ash as an alternative to disposal.

Coal ash contains contaminants like arsenic, cadmium, chromium and selenium associated with cancer, heart disease, liver and kidney damage. Coal ash is frequently disposed of in surface impoundments or landfills or released into nearby waterways, often under a plant’s water pollution permit.

The analysis notes that more than one out of every five coal ash disposal sites nationwide can be found at operating or retired coal-fired power plants in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.

The report calls for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen its enforcement of a 2015 rule that established closure requirements for coal ash disposal sites under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and finalized minimum criteria for groundwater monitoring and corrective action.

The report emphasizes holding utilities and coal ash disposal site owners responsible for fully remediating such sites. “[R]atepayers should not bear the costs without reaping the economic value of full cleanup,” the report says.

The WV Public Service Commission on Tuesday approved $448.3 million in rate recovery for Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power for coal ash disposal and other environmental upgrades federally required to keep three in-state coal-fired power plants operating past 2028.

The report also calls for prioritizing dislocated workers in hiring. Representatives from the Ohio River Valley Institute, nonprofit environmental law group EarthJustice, left-leaning nonprofit think tank Policy Matters Ohio and the ReImagine Appalachia coalition of environmental and community organizations across the region highlighted the report in a press conference and webinar Wednesday.

“Pollution cleanup is essential to ensuring that these areas become places where people can safely live and work,” Amanda Woodrum, senior researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, said.

Thanks to WV-CAD from WV Energy Freedom

From the Press Release, West Virginians for Energy Freedom, January 13, 2018

A federal decision put an end to FirstEnergy Corp.’s bad deal for its West Virginia customers, thousands of whom had protested the company’s plan.

On January 12th, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) denied Ohio-based FirstEnergy’s request to transfer ownership of the Pleasants power plant to Mon Power, one of FirstEnergy’s regulated West Virginia utilities.

Under FirstEnergy’s proposal, customers of Mon Power and Potomac Edison, another FirstEnergy-owned utility in West Virginia, would have assumed all of the plant’s costs and financial risks, while FirstEnergy and its shareholders would receive a guaranteed revenue stream.

The Pleasants deal needed approval from both FERC and the Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia. Solar United Neighbors of West Virginia and West Virginia Citizen Action Group, represented by Earthjustice, challenged FirstEnergy’s proposal before FERC and the PSC. At FERC, SUN-WV and WVCAG argued that customers would be forced to cross-subsidize FirstEnergy’s corporate affiliates.

In its decision, FERC denied FirstEnergy’s proposal because of cross-subsidy concerns. In particular, FERC found that Mon Power’s December 2016 request for proposals for additional power plant capacity – which SUN-WV and WVCAG argued was biased in favor of the Pleasants plant – failed to meet federal standards.

“FERC rejected the Pleasants sale because of the risk that it would result in improper cross-subsidization among subsidiaries of FirstEnergy,” said Cathy Kunkel, an energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “Indeed, FirstEnergy clearly orchestrated the sale of the Pleasants plant in order to shift costs and risk from a deregulated subsidiary onto the customers of Mon Power and Potomac Edison.”

Under this ruling, Mon Power would need to conduct a new RFP process if still seeks to acquire additional power generation capacity.

“In this decision, the FERC commissioners – four of whom were appointed by the current president – unanimously rejected a brazen attempt to force Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers to guarantee profits for FirstEnergy and its shareholders. This is a major victory for West Virginia customers, who would have likely paid hundreds of millions of dollars if FirstEnergy’s scheme had succeeded,” said Michael Soules, an Earthjustice attorney representing SUN-WV and WVCAG.

The Pleasants deal would have cost the average residential household approximately $69 each year for the next 15 years, according to expert testimony in the case before the PSC. In total that’s a net present value loss of $470 million that 530,000 Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers would be forced to bear.

FirstEnergy had expressed confidence to investors that the Pleasants sale would close in the first quarter of 2018. However, earlier this week, a lawyer for FirstEnergy, concerned that FERC might rule against the company, made an improper ex parte communication with one of the FERC commissioners in an attempt to influence the Commission’s decision.

“From its past history with the Harrison Plant sale to its sham RFP and misleading claims in the FERC and PSC cases on Pleasants, FirstEnergy has repeatedly demonstrated it prioritizes its bottom line and stockholders over consumers in West Virginia. This time, thankfully FERC stopped FirstEnergy in its tracks,” said Karan Ireland of West Virginians For Energy Freedom.

Read the FERC decision.

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)