The City of Dover has signed a contract with AMP-Ohio to purchase power for the next fifty years from a proposed $3.3 Billion coal-fired power plant to be built in Letart Falls, Ohio. The plant will be the fifth of its kind in a 10 mile radius. The original estimated price tag was $1.2 billion. AMP-Ohio released new numbers in November, with estimates projected at $3.3 billion, plus financing. Costs could increase even more if federal regulations to control carbon dioxide are enacted. The proposed contract is a take-or-pay contract, where ratepayers, including Dover Light and Power customers, must pay for the plant for 50 years, no matter how high the costs go.

Cities and towns that buy into the proposed AMP-Ohio coal plant may be unwittingly buying into 'mountaintop removal,' a method of coal extraction that literally decapitates Appalachian mountains. Despite what AMP-Ohio maintains, the participants committee will not decide whether this new plant uses coal from mountaintop removal operations. Analysis of the proposed AMP-Ohio contract concluded that it was the AMP-Ohio Board that would decide. The coal industry has already destroyed 470 mountaintops in Central Appalacia, polluting drinking water, killing rivers and destoying wildlife.

AMP-Ohio discloses the new plant will release 20 million pounds of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the air each year. Residents in Meigs County already suffer from health effects linked to pollution from the four other coal-fired power plants: American Electric Power’s Philip Sporn, Mountaineer and JM Gavin plants, and Ohio Valley Electric Corporation’s Kyger Creek plant.

An appeal has been filed against the final National Pollution Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES) permit issued for the American Municipal Power Generating Station by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. The appeal with the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission, was made by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Ohio Environmental Council and Sierra Club. In the opening paragraph it states, 'The permit allows AMP to discharge pollutants into the Ohio River, John’s Run, and unnamed tributaries of the Ohio River from its proposed coal-fired power plant in Letart Falls.’

Cities and towns have very little time to formally notify AMP-Ohio that they want out of the 50-year contract for electricity from the proposed new plant. Tell Mayor Homrighausen and the members of city council this is not how you want your hard earned money spent when there are alternatives that are better for the residents of Ohio and the environment. Dover’s contract with AMP-Ohio does not guarantee lower rates or jobs for Ohioans.

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Kyle Valentini

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