MetroNews: Many arguments and little time as question of power plant’s fate hits deadline

By Brad McElhinny

The next few days will highlight arguments over how far the public is willing to go in saving a 150-employee West Virginia power plant.

A multi-million dollar decision up against a tight deadline is unfair to ratepayers, said Karan May, Sierra Club senior campaign representative in West Virginia.

“It is not fair to ratepayers to ask nearly half the state’s electric customers to pay more on their bills to acquire a power plant that they don’t need and may not even be used — or to ask them to pay to keep it waiting in the wings,” May said.

“And certainly there’s not enough time for this to be judiciously considered. Rate cases and certificate of need cases, all manner of cases at the PSC tend to take up to six months and sometimes have gone on longer. Now we’re less than a month since the first filing by the company. No, it’s not enough time at all.”

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