Friday, April 1, 2016

M/V Daniel T. Martin

Upbound passing South Point, Ohio, in the background as seen from Kenova, WV.


PUCO helps extend lives of several power plants

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has approved a request by American Electric Power and FirstEnergy to increase electricity rates in the short term at least to keep some older coal-fired power plants operating a few more years.

All but one of these plants are along the Ohio River. At least two are 60 years old or older.

The PUCO's decision came on a 5-0 vote, and it likely will be appealed by groups that were against it.

The decision affects more than just Ohio people. Last night I ran some preliminary numbers from the Energy Information Administration on three of the plants affected -- Cardinal and Kyger Creek in Ohio and Clifty Creek in Indiana. Kyger Creek gets its coal from mines in Belmont and Monroe counties in Ohio. Cardinal gets coal from three Ohio counties (Belmont, Harrison and Jefferson), two counties in West Virginia (Ohio and Marshall) and one in Pennsylvania (Greene).

Clifty Creek relies on coal from counties in the Illinois Basin: Perry and Franklin in Illinois, Sullivan in Indiana and Daviess and Union in Kentucky.