Dear Editor,

We should all join the three rural electric co-op members and three public interest groups who are asking the Kentucky Public Service Commission to revoke the certificate for the proposed Smith 1 coal-burning power plant in Kentucky.

Efficiency and conservation measures can save our energy dollar, provide jobs and eliminate the need for new power plants as proven around the country. Don’t believe the coal industry when they say that coal is good for Kentucky jobs. These days the extraction of coal uses few workers because it relies on gargantuan mechanized heavy equipment to tear apart mountains. One look at the economic status and quality of life in of our coal-mining counties will make it obvious that coal has been no boon to those communities.

Coal-fired power plants have unacceptable obvious and hidden costs, including water and air pollution. Mercury from coal plants has contaminated the fish in virtually all of our rivers and lakes, causing the need for fish consumption advisories. Air contamination has caused increasing asthma rates.

All reputable scientific bodies, including our own Environmental Protection Agency, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association of Science, and the National Research Council, along with just about every nation in the world recognize that we face a severe threat to life as we know it on earth if we don’t dramatically reduce our carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Coal-burning power plants will become more and more expensive and obsolete as the world moves away from fossil fuel energy. We must embrace the future and say no to new coal-burning plants.

Christine Missik
Danville, Kentucky
[Letter published in the The Advocate Messenger]

Dear Editor,

East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) wants to build yet another coal-burning power plant in Clark County along the Kentucky River. They’re clamoring for this plant despite the following facts:

•    The federal government will no longer give low-interest loans for coal or nuclear plants, but will still fund other types of energy generation and efficiency strategies at very affordable rates
•    EKPC is in precarious financial straits and would have to pay a high interest rate for the plant with private financing
•    Electric rates are up 70 percent between 2002-2008. A hike of 7 percent was levied in April to help pay for a plant that was recently brought on line. Customers will pay at least that amount again for the proposed plant;
•    Pending carbon and coal ash regulation will add more to the cost of coal-produced electricity than for any other option
•    The plant would burn highly toxic “waste coal” and coal from the Illinois Basin.

EKPC is aware of energy-saving and clean energy options that would meet electricity needs at lower costs while creating thousands of Kentucky jobs. Yet, instead of choosing the best path for customers they claim, “we’re coal people.” Wrong! They’re supposed to be electricity people.

Kentucky’s Public Service Commission must revoke approval for the Smith plant. That may be the only way to convince co-op leaders to pull their heads out of the sand and realize they are in a new era with new demands.

Steve Wilkins
Paint Lick, Kentucky
[Letter published in The Winchester Sun]

Dear Editor,
As a member of Owen Electric Cooperative, which obtains its power from East Kentucky Power Cooperative, I oppose the construction of EKPC’s proposed coal-burning Smith 1 power plant, which the utility plans to build in Clark County near the Kentucky River.  EKPC should abandon this plan and invest in clean energy instead.

A recent report from the Ochs Center indicated that investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency to meet load requirements would cost ratepayers less than building and operating the Smith plant. Such an approach would not only help decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but would also have the additional benefit of creating thousands of good jobs in all 87 counties served by the rural co-ops, including 1,530 jobs in the Owen Electric service area alone. Heaven knows we need those jobs!

The Kentucky Public Service Commission has already admitted that allowing EKPC to build the Smith plant might “[result] in EKPC having excess generation capacity.” Why should we ratepayers pay for an unnecessary, dirty plant when much better alternatives are available? 

At this pivotal moment in history, all citizens and public officials need to think of the effects on future generations of the energy-generation decisions we make today.  Our choices should contribute to positive solutions, not escalating problems. I urge readers to contact Attorney General Jack Conway, asking him to stand with co-op members who have petitioned the PSC to rescind their approval for EKPC to build this expensive, polluting and ill-advised plant.

Tona Barkley
Owenton, Kentucky