By Mike Tony
A political strategist who played a key role in a successful push to flip control of the West Virginia Legislature from Democrats to Republicans in 2014 later played a key role in a billion-dollar power plant bailout secured by FirstEnergy bribery.
Nine years after Republicans gained control of the House of Delegates for the first time in eight decades, the Legislature consists of a Republican supermajority embracing another FirstEnergy-engineered plant bailout on the table.
By Curtis Tate
The embattled Pleasants Power Station in Pleasants County could be operated, on a temporary basis, by Mon Power under a proposal the company submitted to state regulators Friday.
If the West Virginia Public Service Commission approves the plan, Mon Power would operate Pleasants for 12 months beyond its planned shutdown at the end of May. It would recover the $3 million per month cost through a surcharge on ratepayers.
According to the filing, the average residential user would pay $2.67 more each month. All categories of customers would pay roughly 2.2% more each month.
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By Steven Allen Adams, Parkersburg News & Sentinel
CHARLESTON — Two power companies owned by Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. are seeking approval to keep Pleasants Power Station near St. Marys open for an additional year while considering long-term options, but they also seek to charge customers more to cover the costs.
Monongahela Power Co. and Potomac Edison Co. released their analysis of keeping Pleasants Power operating past its closure date of May 31. Both companies are subsidiaries of FirstEnergy, based in Akron, Ohio.
By Mike Tony
FirstEnergy’s West Virginia subsidiaries have proposed a $36 million rate increase to keep open a coal-fired plant in Pleasants County due to stop operating at the end of May.
Mon Power and Potomac Edison submitted a filing to the West Virginia Public Service Commission Friday asking for a temporary surcharge to allow them to recover costs of keeping the Pleasants Power Station open for 12 months, beginning June 1.
The companies contended they didn't have enough time to evaluate whether to acquire and operate Pleasants on a long-term basis to avoid a plant shutdown and lose the plant's employees.
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By Emmett Pepper
Hoppy Kercheval’s recent opinion piece about the reliability of electricity service was interesting, but its conclusion that “the rush to green energy to replace traditional baseload power sources could leave us in the dark” felt hyperbolic and unsupported by the rest of the piece.
His column repeated arguments made by utility/coal advocates in favor of power plant bailouts. It also ignores the real issue with reliability of service: delivering electricity.
West Virginia is the latest state to fight for coal's survival, complicating the Biden administration's efforts to green the grid and cut planet-warming pollution.
By Benjamin Storrow
CLIMATEWIRE | West Virginia's governor is begging. Lawmakers are pleading. And power plant workers are scrambling to save their jobs.
But one of West Virginia's largest coal plants may close this spring despite the rescue efforts of political leadership in one of America's top coal mining states.
The fate of Pleasants Power Station has become a litmus test of West Virginia's ability to preserve a fuel that has long underpinned its economy. The fight is being repeated in coal mining states across America. As coal disappears from the country's electric mix, mining states are launching efforts to save what remains of a once mighty industry.