By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas is more open to coal power than other states because it is more “visionary,” the head of a multi-state electric utility said Friday.
American Electric Power CEO Mike Morris made the comment during a talk on energy efficiency and sustainability at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
Glen Hooks of the Sierra Club, who was in the audience during the speech, asked Morris why Arkansas should allow his company to build a new coal-fired power plant in the state after many other states have said no to new coal plants.
“I would argue because Arkansas is a bit more of a visionary than many of the other states,” Morris said.
Shreveport, La.-based Southwestern Electric Power Co., a subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based AEP, is seeking to build a $1.6 billion, 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County. The plant has received approval from the Arkansas Public Service Commission and has been granted an air quality permit by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, but area landowners and environmental groups are appealing those decisions.
Morris said Friday that developing renewable energy is part of AEP’s overall strategy, but “coal is going to be burned for a while. There is absolutely no question about that.”
The proposed John W. Turk Plant will use “ultra-supercritical” technology to burn coal at higher temperatures and pressures than was possible with old technology, improving efficiency and reducing carbon emissions, Morris said. The company also is working on technology to capture and store carbon emissions and expects that technology to become available in the middle of the next decade, he said.
“Clean coal is viable and doable,” Morris said. “Ultra-supercritical is the next step in that engineering challenge. The technological prowess of this country and of others around the world will see to it that that happens.”
Morris said that over the past 50 years, the amount of coal burned in the world increased each decade, but thanks to technology, the air has become cleaner in each decade.
“The issue of global warming has come to the fore as one more technological challenge that we’ll handle,” said Morris, who shared the stage at the Clinton School with David McClanahan, CEO of Houston-based natural gas utility CenterPoint Energy.
Hooks later issued a statement criticizing the proposed plant, which he said will emit nearly 6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and nearly 400 pounds of mercury each year.
“Utility CEOs like to talk about coal as a cheap source of power, but that’s increasingly untrue,” Hooks said. “The cost of building the Turk plant has increased by hundred of millions of dollars over the last year, costs that will be borne by the ratepayers. Factor in the damage coal inflicts on our public health and our environment, and it’s apparent that dirty coal is a fantastically bad investment in 2009.”
