New Ohio Power Plant to Serve WV Municipalities

A group I had never heard of before, American Municpal Power - Ohio, is planning on building a large coal-fired power plant in Meigs County, Ohio, on the Ohio River, that will be serving West Virginians. The news release says "[t]he AMPGS project is an approximately 1,000 MW coal-fired generating plant, transmission line and associated facilities under development adjacent to the Ohio River in southern Meigs County. The facility will utilize the latest in proven, state-of-the-art emission control equipment, which will make the facility the cleanest in the region and one of the cleanest facilities of its type in the nation. AMPGS will supply power to 81 municipal electric systems in Ohio, Michigan, Virginia and West Virginia. "

Initial permits have been issued by Ohio EPA, and, although there have been appeals of the permits, construction is reportedly going to start in the near future. I haven't seen the initial permits, but it's hard to see how this power plant wouldn't be a focus for environmentalists and others across the nation who are trying to stop the development of coal projects by pointing out the effect on downwind compliance with ozone and particulate standards, the setting of air emission limits for greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, and MACT controls for mercury and other air toxics. If you're interested in the application of MACT application to power plants, you might want to look Southern Alliance for Clean Energy v. Duke Energy Carolinas LLC. As for carbon dioxide limits on power plants, the EPA Environmental Appeals Board has ruled on this, and federal courts are starting to do the same. Check out this summary or this explanation of how the EAB decision came about.

According to the news release, AMP-Ohio is the Columbus, Ohio-based nonprofit wholesale power supplier and services provider for 126 member municipal electric systems in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. The organization provides a diverse mix in its wholesale generation resources, which in addition to fossil fuel, includes wind, hydroelectric, landfill gas and distributed generation. For more information abut AMP-Ohio visit www.amp-ohio.org.