New Report: The Right Decision for Changing Times

A financial report released yesterday shows that the East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) should avoid the high capital costs of a new coal fired power plant, or its already weak financial position will worsen.  EKPC is a generating and transmission cooperative utility with 16 member distribution co-ops, serving customers in 87 Kentucky counties, which plans to build and operate a 287-megawatt coal-fired power plant called Smith #1 in Clark County, Kentucky. 

EKPC's plan to build a new coal fired power plant is both expensive and bad, as it ignores the reality that carbon dioxide will soon be regulated and taxed in some way.  The already burdened people of south eastern Kentucky should not be asked to pay for taking what is obviously the wrong fork in the road to our energy future," said KFTC member and Clay County resident Susan Dansereau.

The report by TR Rose Associates, titled "The Right Decision for Changing Times,â€ was commissioned by three organizations – Cumberland Chapter of the Sierra Club, Kentucky Environmental Foundation and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth – concerned with the health, environmental and economic impacts the Smith power plant would have for co-op customers and Kentucky residents.  Its recommendations are based on extensive review of EKPC financial data and its executives’ and experts’ testimony to the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

Also, read some of the news coverage about the new report: