A local chapter of a national environmental group is trying to reverse regulatory action on a coal-fired power plant.
The Sierra Club is appealing an April decision by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which determined Oklahoma Gas and Electric’s plan to add pollution scrubbers to the Sooner Power Plant was reasonable, The Journal Record’s Sarah Terry-Cobo reports:
[Sierra Club attorney Kristin] Henry filed her appeal on May 26. She disagreed with the OCC’s decision that it was reasonable to add equipment to lower smog-forming chemicals to the power plant. The Sooner facility isn’t running most of the time, according to data the Sierra Club requested in the most recent case. It doesn’t make sense to add more money to a power plant that is mostly idle, she said. “It is illogical to add more capital costs, because you can only get that back from the ratepayers,” Henry said. Oklahoma Energy Results, a group of heavy industrial customers, also joined the appeal. The OCC should not have accepted OG&E’s third request for the Sooner Power Plant, because the agency already decided the matter when it rejected the two previous requests, the group wrote in court documents.
Regulators didn’t address the expected $500 million in project costs. The Corporation Commission rejected similar plans OG&E has proposed twice before. Henry said the Commissioners are responsible for protecting ratepayers, according to Terry-Cobo:
“There is no way you can legally meet the mandate to protect ratepayers without looking at the costs of the plan,” Henry said. She said she has not sought an injunction to stop the construction project at the Sooner Power Plant. OCC staff members have six months to compile documents from OG&E’s requests for the appellate court to review. OCC spokesman Matt Skinner said it has been at least 10 years since a utility case was appealed. OG&E spokeswoman Kathleen O’Shea wrote in an email to The Journal Record that the company was pleased with the agency’s decision, and is confident its plan to add scrubbers is the right one.
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