ALBRIGHT -
Communities in West Virginia and across the nation face losses as the oldest coal-fired power plants near the ends of their useful lives.
Families lose good livelihoods when plants are retired. The diversity and health of local economies are diminished.
But in some communities, residents, supported by environmental groups, have worked with utilities to craft closure plans that take local needs into account.
Last year, for example, workers and local governments in Centralia, Wash., assisted by the Sierra Club, negotiated a 15-year plant closure plan with TransAlta. The plan sets aside $50 million for energy efficiency and clean energy projects — initiatives that will keep electricity bills down and offset the jobs impact of the closure.
A similar settlement agreement on behalf of residents of Gulf states was announced later in the year. Audubon and the Sierra Club agreed to stop fighting AEP's new coal-fired plant in Arkansas. To offset the new plant's emissions, the utility will retire its old Welsh 2 coal-fired unit in northeast Texas by 2016 and will provide 400 megawatts of clean generating capacity for the region and $10 million for energy efficiency and land conservation.
Comparable opportunities may be available in West Virginia, where as many as six plants face possible closure due to tightening air pollution regulations.
"Where communities have come together and tried to plan their future, successes happen," explained James Kotcon to participants at a meeting the West Virginia Sierra Club hosted Jan. 14 in Preston County, where change is expected at the 60-year-old Albright Station. Kotcon is the club's Energy Committee chairman.
"Where there have been problems is where the community is not participating," Kotcon said. "The board of directors out in some other state makes a decision and you wake up one morning and the gate is closed."
Expected W.Va. closures
Coming air pollution regulations drew an announcement of three West Virginia plant closures last summer from AEP, which supplies power to the southern and western parts of the state. The utility plans to close its Philip Sporn plant near New Haven, its Kanawha River plant near Montgomery and its Kammer plant near Moundsville by 2016. The facilities represent about 240 jobs across the three communities.
FirstEnergy, supplying power to the northern and eastern counties, has so far declined to make its plans known. But its Rivesville, Willow Island and Albright stations are widely expected to be affected.
The early-1950s-vintage Albright Station, operated by subsidiary Monongahela Power, still churns out 600,000 megawatt-hours of power a year, enough to supply more than 40,000 homes. That sounds vital until it's compared with, say, the newer Fort Martin plant nearby, which generates 10 times as much power — and with far less pollution.
About 60 workers maintain Albright in jobs precious to a county that has lost several employers in recent years.
Albright's role in the regional economy goes beyond that, of course. Its 60 employees spend money on local goods and services. The plant sources coal from MEPCO's No. 8 and Prime No. 1 mines in Monongalia County and from mines in Fayette County, Pa. Truck drivers hauling coal to the plant stop in nearby Kingwood for lunch.
Thinking about the future
For a Saturday meeting in a rural part of the state to draw 50 people, the topic has to be of serious concern.
FirstEnergy was invited but did not send a representative, so Kotcon and chapter Chairman Jim Sconyers laid out the range of actions FirstEnergy might be preparing to announce.
The company could decide to install pollution controls, they said, although that would cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
It could convert the plant to natural gas or another fuel. Given the low cost of gas and its growing nearby availability, that seems hopeful, some agreed.
Or it could close the plant entirely — a possibility that raised deep worries.
Mon Power pays about $375,000 in property taxes annually, Preston County Assessor Terri Funk said. Those taxes support the school board and county commission and represent several percent of an $8 million county budget.
County Commissioner Craig Jennings and others fear the higher electricity rates that pollution controls or plant closures will bring. Utility bills already burden the county's lower-income population living in older, poorly insulated housing stock, they said.
One participant balked when Sen. Dave Sypolt, R-Preston, pointed to job retraining offered by WorkForce West Virginia.
"You all talk about retraining and other so-called possibilities, but all I see is businesses closing," the man countered. He referred to the loss of 330 jobs when the Whitetail Kittanning mine closed in 2008 and another 117 jobs lost in 2009 with the closure of the Matthews Bronze facility, which he said moved to Mexico.
"Retraining for what?" he asked. "They're going to have to move out of this county to get a job."
That is exactly the reason to engage with FirstEnergy, Sconyers suggested. The company might be persuaded to make offsetting energy efficiency and clean energy investments.
"When you winterize a home, that's not something you can send to Mexico," he said. "When you install a new gas-fired power plant, we're not going to be doing that in Mexico or China."
Next steps
"I think one of the challenges is to get the message across that, no matter how much you love it, the status quo is not one of the options," said Sconyers of this first meeting, aimed an introducing the idea of entering a dialog with FirstEnergy.
Kotcon expressed frustration that little information has been forthcoming from the company.
"It is clear that economic forces are going to drive some very dramatic changes, but no one knows those data like FirstEnergy does," he said. "To get to a win-win scenario, FirstEnergy has to come forward with some discussion of what the market will dictate for the Albright plant and for plants like Rivesville and Willow Island."
And local residents will have to come together if they want a say in how this plays out, he said.
The Sierra Club will meet soon to discuss next steps and to form plans for engaging other communities threatened by plant closures.
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