NOTE: THE NEXT MEETING OF THE
MON VALLEY CLEAN AIR COALITION
WILL BE HELD ON MONDAY, MAY 15TH,
7:00 PM
AT THE PRETE BUILDING
ON UNIVERSITY AVENUE IN SUNCREST
[[BE SURE TO VOTE ON OR BEFORE
THE PRIMARY ELECTION DAY ON MAY 9TH.]]
Below is a portion of the our Initial Brief on the Longview Transmission Line
and the remaining four issues regarding the Siting Certificate. Let me know
if you have comments or questions at this time.
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PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
OF WEST VIRGINIA
CHARLESTON
CASE NO. 03-1860-E-CS-CN
LONGVIEW POWER, LLC
Application of Longview Power, LLC for a Siting Certificate to Authorize the
Construction and Operation of a Wholesale Electric Generating Facility in
Monongalia County West Virginia.
and
CASE NO. 05-1467-E-CN
LONGVIEW POWER, LLC
Application of Longview Power, LLC for a Certificate of Public Convenience
and Necessity Authorizing the Construction and Installation of a 500 kV Electric
Transmission Line and to Satisfy Conditional Siting Certificate for Exempt
Wholesale Generating Facility in Monongalia, West Virginia
INITIAL BRIEF OF INTERVENORS BARBARA J. BORN, ET AL.
Respectfully submitted this
22nd day of April, 2006
BARBARA BORN ET AL
INTERVENORS
By Counsel,
PHILLIP D. GAUJOT
WV State Bar I.D. No. 1355
IV. SUMMARY
West Virginia is open for business, but it should not be open for
exploitation. Concerned Citizens believe that the application by Longview Power, LLC, to
the Public Service Commission for the permits required to build a coal-fired
power plant near Morgantown crosses a line that separates acceptable economic
development from the exploitation of West Virginia’s residents and their
quality of life. In the preceding sections we have identified many pertinent
details of Longview’s applications that support this position. However, the
decision by the Public Service Commission to approve or deny Longview’s applications
cannot be reduced to a simple weighing of details. The likelihood of the
success or failure of the Longview power plant, the realization of true benefits
for the residents of Monongalia County and the State of West Virginia, and the
broader impact of the Longview power plant on our region’s future depends on
more than kilowatts, dollars and decibels. To fully assess the significance of
these details requires a careful scrutiny of the company that submitted them
in support of its application. Therefore, Concerned Citizens believes the
following four themes should be considered along with the technical details
presented to the Public Service Commission:
1. Longview is neither a credible nor competent applicant. It is not
surprising that Longview failed repeatedly to provide information to the Staff of the
Public Service Commission in a thorough and timely manner, given the fact that
GenPower has no experience in developing a coal-fired power plant. West
Virginians do not deserve to be placed at risk by the blunders of an inexperienced
power plant developer. Longview’s, i.e. GenPower’s, incompetence becomes
particularly dangerous when coupled with its desire to invest the minimum amount
of money and effort in providing a fully developed and complete application to
the Commission. The problems created by GenPower’s lack of competence has
hindered the Commission’s evaluation of the noise impact. This lack of
competence is also evident in GenPower’s failure to provide detailed plans for any
substantial part of the Longview power plant and its failure to provide a
financial plan to ensure the project’s long-term viability. If Longview could not
submit a complete and credible application to the Commission, how can we be
confident that it can build a power plant? It is disturbing that GenPower will
sell a package of permits to others who will actually build the Longview plant,
because we have no opportunity at this point to determine if the new owners
will be any more competent than GenPower.
2. Longview, i.e. GenPower, is not a trustworthy applicant. The Commission’s
review of Longview’s application is predicated on the honesty and integrity
of the information and expert opinion provided by all parties to the
Commission. Yet, Longview demonstrated in its attempt to manipulate the testimony of
Eldon Ray that it is willing to corrupt the process if it suits Longview. This
direct attempt to manipulate testimony casts a long and troubling shadow over
all aspects of Longview’s application. Longview’s trustworthiness has also
been challenged by the fact that the current owners of Longview (GenPower) may
be out of the picture by the time construction of the power plant would
actually begin. Bait-and-switch strategies are not a good basis for a corporation to
gain the public’s trust, and the departure of Longview’s current owners
raises serious concerns about long-term accountability during the construction and
operation of the Longview power plant. Longview, i.e. GenPower, has
demonstrated that it is nothing more than a broker for a commodity it wishes to create
in the State of West Virginia by taking advantage of residents, tax payers,
and government permitting agencies for an exorbitant profit.
3. The imbalance between regional economic benefit and Longview’s corporate
profit is unfair. A cornerstone of economic development is the willingness of a
developer to risk a financial investment to obtain a long-term profit. But,
when the public is asked to share in the investment by giving a tax break to
the developer, the notion of a fair profit must be given much greater
consideration. Longview has failed to demonstrate that a PILOT Agreement is necessary
for this project, although it is clear that it will receive excessive benefit
from the PILOT. In asking the public for a tax break, Longview has obligated
itself to be forthcoming in demonstrating that its profit-taking does not offend
the public interest. It has not done so.
4. There is too much uncertainty surrounding this project. Despite requests
from Staff of the Public Service Commission and Concerned Citizens, Longview
has failed to submit many essential items of information to the Commission for
review. The Commission and Concerned Citizens still do not have the final
detailed plans and specifications required by the Commission, Longview’s
financial viability is still undetermined, and there is no specification of a market
for its electricity. The list of missing information goes on and on. This
uncertainty in the details makes it impossible to assess the risks, or the
benefits, of the Longview power plant to West Virginia.
Concerned Citizens respects the interests of the construction workers who
have supported the Longview power plant in their quest for more jobs. But the
public interest must be viewed more broadly, and we want to remind the Public
Service Commission of the many other West Virginians who will not be so lucky as
to benefit from Longview.
There are the residents of the Fort Martin community who have already endured
over 30 years of living next door to the Fort Martin power plant, one of the
dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the nation. Now, Longview is asking them
to accept more noise, dirtier air, and a further deterioration of their
quality of life. Where the residents now see open pasture outside their homes,
Longview wants them to accept another noisy, massive, belching power plant as their
new neighbor. As difficult as it is to get a good night’s sleep now, Longview
wants them to sacrifice more, with an even larger parade of trucks, dust, and
incessant mechanical noise that even Longview’s own noise expert (Vince
Alaimo) said he would not want as a neighbor. Rather than showing respect for the
Fort Martin community and dealing with these issues, Longview has simply tried
to buy out the community of Fort Martin, but many have resisted.
There is also the next generation of Monongalia County workers who, twenty
years from now, will ask us why we invested so much in a 19th century industry
when we had so many better opportunities available to us—a growing regional
medical center, high-tech research, and a top-class university. The addition of
the 8th coal-fired power plant within 30 miles only jeopardizes these
opportunities. Will we tell the next generation that short-term jobs were more
important than their future?
The Public Service Commission has heard from many people who are opposed to
the Longview power plant. But, the Commission has not heard from many of the
very large group of people most likely to be hurt by Longview—our children and
our elderly. They will take in the greatest risk with the air they breathe.
Asthma, cardiovascular disease, and premature death are not beneficial to these
people. How can we, as a compassionate society, continue to expose our most
fragile constituents to such great risks so that others can achieve a short-term
gain?
West Virginia is open for business, and it has many bright opportunities to
pursue. Longview, however, is not one of them. Like a pied piper, GenPower has
tempted our community and its leaders during the past 3½ years with promises
that the Longview power plant would be good for us. But, we are reminded of
the failures of projects developed by GenPower in Dell, Arkansas, and McAdams,
Mississippi. Nothing among GenPower’s presentations to the Public Service
Commission, or any other entity, has convinced us that we would fare any better
than these failed projects. Construction of the Longview power plant is not in
the public interest, and it is not a good business for West Virginia. It is
nothing more than exploitation by an out-of-state company hoping for a large
profit with a minimal investment of money and effort. In so doing, GenPower has
displayed contempt for the health, prosperity and welfare of our communities.
Put most succinctly—Longview offends the public interest.
V. CONCLUSION
During the past 3 ½ years we have heard many arguments presented for and
against the Longview power plant. The public has been engaged in debate across
many venues—public information meetings, public hearings before the Monongalia
County Commission and the Monongalia County Board of Education, and two rounds
of public and evidentiary hearings before the Public Service Commission. As we
near the end of this debate, it is appropriate that the Commission will make
the final determination of whether this project should move forward, because it
is the Commission that is given the authority by the State of West Virginia
to serve as the final arbiter of the most important question of all—whether
constructing Longview is in the public interest.
An important point of debate has been determining how the impacts of Longview
on the public interest should be weighed across our region. It has been very
evident in statements made at the Commission’s public hearings and letters
submitted to the Commission that most of Longview’s supporters are construction
workers who live outside of Monongalia County. These workers would have the
good fortune to find temporary construction employment, but live and raise their
families at a safe distance from Longview. In contrast, most of the
opponents of Longview live in Monongalia County and would have to live with Longview
as an unwelcome new neighbor for the next 30 years or more. In weighing the
benefits of Longview to the state, region, and county, we believe that the
short-term regional benefits of construction employment are outweighed by the
long-term negative impact of Longview on the quality of life, the health of the
public, and the potential loss of more promising economic development
opportunities in Monongalia County.
In determining whether Longview is in the public interest, we ask the
Commission to give careful scrutiny to GenPower, the company. Although it has wooed
many of our local political leaders, Longview, i.e., GenPower has failed to
gain the public’s trust. It has shown disrespect to our community and to the
Commission in not being forthcoming in answering important questions, and now,
after several years of prodding, its application remains incomplete. For the
residents of Monongalia County, the final insult has been the large corporate
profit that GenPower wants to take away, while it leaves us so little. To
approve GenPower’s application would set the standard for approval at such a low
level that it would set a bad precedent for the consideration of applications
from other power plant developers in the future. GenPower is simply not the
right company to develop a new power plant in West Virginia, given the record in
these proceedings.
For all the reasons set forth above, Intervenors Barbara J. Born,
et al., [Concerned Citizens] respectfully request this Honorable Public
Service Commission of West Virginia dismiss the Application for a Siting
Certificate and the Application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity
Authorizing the Construction and Installation of a 500 kV Electric Transmission
Line filed by Longview Power, LLC, i.e., GenPower, LLC, on the bases that: (1)
Longview offends the public interest in its abuse of our quality of life,
health, economic development, and sense of fair profit; (2) Longview refuses to
provide essential information needed to demonstrate that its construction and
operation could be in the public interest; and (3) Longview (i.e., GenPower) is
not a credible developer that can be trusted by the citizens of Monongalia
County.
The residents of Monongalia County do not want this power plant.
