Just when you thought it was safe to forget about the Kemper “clean coal” fiasco, the mess has resurfaced with the revelation that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the miserably failed experiment.
According to the Southern Company, the parent of Mississippi Power Company, the Kemper plant’s owner, the investigation is related to whether Mississippi Power will be required to pay back the $387 million the U.S. Department of Energy kicked in for the project.
If that is the ultimate outcome, that money should come out of Mississippi Power’s pocket and not be passed onto its ratepayers.
As Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley says, the commission determined two years ago that Mississippi Power was entitled to only $1.1 billion of the $7.5 billion it squandered on pushing forward with a project it knew was unlikely to work. If Mississippi Power misled the feds on the economic feasibility of converting low-grade coal to cleaner burning gas, just like they tried to mislead state regulators, then it and its parent should be the only ones responsible for repaying the grant money.
Mississippi Power was lucky to get $1.1 billion of its costs covered by the ratepayers. It doesn’t deserve one cent more.
