'Clean coal' project wants legislature to make electric utilities buy its more expensive power

Coal-state lawmakers have been quick to champion "clean coal" technologies, but now one of the top coal states is trying to decide if the added cost of electricity from one technology is worth the investment. That has created an unusual schism between coal interests and one of their major lobbying allies, rural electric cooperatives, in Kentucky.

Supporters of a $2 billion coal-gasification project want the Kentucky legislature to force utilities to purchase the higher-priced electricity it would generate," Roger Alford of The Associated Press reports. "Reluctant lawmakers said they fear the proposal would lead to electric rate increases for Kentucky residents and businesses."

Kentucky has some of the lowest electricity prices in the country, but has been criticized for wasting that advantage through inefficient use. Officials from the Cash Creek project in Western Kentucky, which would convert coal into synthetic natural gas that would then be burned to generate electricity or sold through a gas pipeline, warned lawmakers that if they didn't force utilities to pay the higher rates Kentucky would not see any coal gasification. A Pike County representative told Alford the higher rates in the proposal gave him heartburn.

"The Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives and utility companies have already begun lobbying to defeat the legislation, even though it hasn't yet been filed," Alford reports. Dennis Cannon, spokesman for the state's rural electric co-ops, told Alford, "The issue we look at is what's best for our customers. It appears that from what we have heard, electricity would be more costly than from other sources available to us." (Read more)