Gulf Restoration Network

Weighing in on Kemper Coal Blog - Healthy Waters / Dead Zone Wednesday, 23 May 2012 08:55

Citizens rally against Kemper at hearing in Gulfport, MS.Recently, Ashby Foote, a Jackson, Mississippi-based private money manager, joined a chorus of voices weighing in against the dirty, expensive and unnecessary Kemper coal plant by publishing an op-ed in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. In this op-ed, Foote deftly explains how Mississippi Power used inflated estimates of future natural gas prices to justify building this 2.88 billion dollar lignite coal plant and mine. Basically, as Foote puts it, “[t]he lignite coal gasification plant in Kemper County isn't [cost] competitive with today's natural-gas-fired facilities, and it wasn't when first proposed back in 2009.”

While natural gas (especially the process for getting it known as fracking) has its own environmental concerns, these economics are impossible to ignore. And Kemper isn’t just a bad financial bet. If allowed to move forward, the power plant and strip mine would destroy hundreds of acres of wetlands, pollute nearby waters, and release pollutants into the air. You can take action to stop Kemper coal by clicking here. Check out Foote’s full op-ed here.

Andrew Whitehurst is GRN's Assistant Director of Science and Water Policy.