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This article originally provided by
The Charleston Gazette
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal officials have quietly pulled the
plug on funding for construction of the proposed Western Greenbrier
Co-Generation plant.
U.S. Department of Energy officials now list the $416 million
facility as "discontinued."
Developers have for more than five years struggled to come up with
private money to match DOE funds, and environmental groups have
complained that the project would pollute local air and water.
DOE spent more than $8 million on project planning, and the West
Virginia Economic Development Authority lost $3 million in a loan
guarantee approved in 2004 by the Wise administration.
"It's good that the federal government finally came to its senses,"
said Joe Lovett, director of the Lewisburg-based Appalachian Center
for the Economy and the Environment, which challenged plant permits.
"I think the local developers of the project were well-intentioned,
but wrong, because the plant would have had significant negative
consequences for the environment of the county," Lovett said. "And
the economy of the county is significantly based on tourism, and it
would have been a mistake to put a coal-fired power plant here."
DOE dropped the project in mid-June, less than two months after they
formally approved a loan of up to $107.5 million, according to
federal records.
The DOE action also came just a month after developers had obtained
private funding to help complete a critical engineering report for
other private financiers.
DOE had never publicly announced the move, but agency officials
confirmed the action in an e-mail statement Wednesday.
Joe Culver, a DOE media spokesman, said in the statement, "it
became clear that the ultimate success of the project was not
likely."
Wayne Brown, a spokesman for Western Greenbrier, said that a
reporter's phone call was the first he heard of the DOE decision.
"Well, that's news to me," Brown said. He added that the project's
future seemed dim, given the lack of DOE money.
"We would have to sit down and think about that," Brown said. "We
certainly were counting on the Department of Energy."
When DOE granted its initial approval in late April, the agency
said, "Without the funding, DOE assumes the project would be
canceled."
Western Greenbrier had hoped to build the plant near Rainelle. It
would burn coal and coal waste, helping to clean up a nearby gob
pile at Anjean, developers said. Western Greenbrier is owned by the
towns of Rainelle, Rupert and Quinwood.
Originally, the 85-megawatt plant was expected to cost $215 million,
and developers hoped to get half of that in loans from the DOE's
clean coal program. But costs skyrocketed to $416 million, and
developers have said that they were facing financial problems.
Earlier this year, one local bank refused to continue extending
payback dates for Western Greenbrier, and the state EDA had to pay
the $3 million of the loan it guaranteed, said David Warner,
director of the EDA.
To read a study of the power plant project:
http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/coalpower/cctc/EIS/eis_wgreenbrier.html
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.
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