High court to review ruling on plant

The Arkansas Supreme Court agreed Thursday to review a state Court of Appeals rejection of the approval of the $2.1 billion John W. Turk Jr. power plant project in Hempstead County.

The appeals court in June overruled the Arkansas Public Service Commission, which had granted a Certificate of

Environmental Compatibility and Public Need to build a power plant and recover costs through Arkansas customers. The appeals court ruled that regulators misapplied "plain language" law requiring new plants and related facilities, such as power lines, to be reviewed at the same time.

Southwestern Electric Power Co. has continued work on the coal-fired plant near Fulton. About $830 million had been spent on the plant by Sept. 30, the company said in a release. Construction began in late 2008 and the Turk plant is scheduled to be operational by late 2012.

Both the commission and SWEPCO asked the Supreme Court to look at the case.

Paul Chodak, SWEPCO's president, said in the release that the "record in the case will show that the approval process was correct." "We believe the Turk Plant holds the best future for longterm reliability and affordable power for our customer," Chodak said.

Paul Suskie, chairman of the Public Service Commission, said Thursday that the commission is hoping for clarification on "what the proper procedure is under Arkansas law to site plants, whether it's a coal plant or a wind farm." Suskie said the procedure for approving a site hadn't been challenged in court before the Turk case and had been followed for electricgenerating facilities since 1973.

He said he wasn't sure what would happen if the court said the procedure was incorrect.

"There's so many options on what the court could say," Suskie said. "I would need to know [that to know] which direction we would follow. If they say the procedure was correct, then the procedure stands. If they say one part of it is incorrect, they could remand it down to [the commission to] fix that problem, or remand the whole case." A timetable for the case hasn't been issued. According to SWEPCO, the Supreme Court could accept additional briefs or oral arguments.

SWEPCO has said the plant will use "ultra-supercritical" coal-combustion technology, which would produce fewer emissions than traditional pulverized-coal plants.

The Sierra Club, an environmental group opposing the plant, in a prepared statement characterized the court's decision to review as an "opportunity to affirm a unanimous Arkansas Court of Appeals ruling that SWEPCO's construction permit was invalid." The Turk plant, the environmental group said, "would spew millions of tons of pollutants and poisons into our air, water, and bodies every year for the next forty to fifty years." SWEPCO said its certificate from the commission for the 600-megawatt coal-fueled plant remains in effect during the appeal process.

But the Sierra Club has called on SWEPCO to stop building, in part because of the appeals court ruling. Late last month, the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission voted 10-2 to deny a petition to stop the construction.

The Sierra Club maintains that "forcing Arkansas ratepayers to pick up a billion-dollar tab for this reckless behavior would be unconscionable and unfair." The Turk plant is the centerpiece of SWEPCO's efforts to supply customers' growing power demands.

Based in Shreveport the company is a unit of American Electric Power and serves about 113,500 customers in western Arkansas. SWEPCO also has customers in east and north Texas and northwest Louisiana.

The case is Hempstead County Hunting Club Inc. et al. v. Arkansas Public Service Commission et al.

The plant is currently being built by more than 900 workers, SWEPCO spokesman Peter Main said. Workers would jump to more than 1,400 at the peak of construction. About 110 employees would be on hand once operations start.

This article was published 10/23/2009