Subject: Longview at Mon County Commission on Wednesday
Tha agenda for the Mon County Commission lists:
c) To consider for approval of documents related to Mountain State Clean Energy LLC & Mountain State Renewable LLC
d) Consideration of a Collaboration Resolution between Monongalia County Commission and Monongalia County Board of Education
We have learned that Longview has changed their name to Mountain State Clean Energy, LLC, so these are the PILOT agreements and related documents for the new 1200-MW gas-fired power plant.
While the total amounts of payments are the same as originally proposed in Sept. 2019, the payment under the PILOT is much smaller, and most of the money will come to the Commission as a lease payment, as specified in a related document (Lease Agreement). This appears to be a mechanism to keep the State from reducing allocations to the school board, as happened with the PILOT for Longview I.
Nothing in the documents addresses the greenhouse gas emissions or pollution from the new plant. Nothing protects workers at existing plants. Nothing adjusts the PILOT payments for the actual value of the plant, or addresses most of the other issues we have raised over the last two years.
Please contact the County Commission and urge them to establish a 30-day comment period and to delay action on these agreements until the public has a chance to respond. Tell them you oppose giving tax breaks for fossil fuel plants that emit greenhouse gases.
E-Mail letters to the Commissioners at:
Tom Bloom tbloom@moncommission.com Ed Hawkins commissionerHawkins@moncommission.com Sean Sikora ssikora@moncommission.com
Or file comments protesting the PILoT on line at: https://www.monongaliacounty.gov/contact_us/index.php (Comments at this page are limited to 300 characters.
Contact me or the County Commission at
info@moncommission.com
if you want copies of these documents.
Jim Kotcon, Sierra Club, 304-594-3322 (home)
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