Beech Bottom plant site near old Wheeling Corrugating Plant location
From an Article by Warren Scott, Wheeling Intelligencer, March 4, 2015
Beech Bottom site: WV Route 2 & Ohio River
Wellsburg, WV – A New York energy company has announced it may build two gas-fired power plants on more than 100 acres north of the former Wheeling Corrugating Plant in Beech Bottom.
The Brooke County Commission on Tuesday signed two memorandums of understanding, one for each plant, that officials with the Energy Solutions Consortium said are needed to support plans to build the two plants. Company officials said each plant could bring up to 60 jobs with salaries of $80,000 as well as hundreds of jobs involved in building them.
Curtis Wilkerson, spokesman for Energy Solutions, didn’t know the amount of money that may be expended for the plants’ construction but said the plant planned for Moundsville amounts to a $615 million investment, with a projected economic impact of more than $8 billion.
Wilkerson cautioned that the company has “a long waiting game” ahead, as it must convince the PJM Interconnection of the projects’ feasibility and secure state permits, including a certificate of need from the West Virginia Public Service Commission.
Approval from the PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states, could take several months, he said.
Wilkerson and Brian Helmick, attorney for Energy Solutions, both noted the company hasn’t ruled out other potential sites for the plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania. But Matt Dorn, an owner of the company, told the commissioners, “This is the first step. It’s a big step, and we’re going to do everything we can to make these projects happen.”
The commissioners and leaders of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle said they are optimistic about the endeavor. Commission President Tim Ennis praised the efforts of BDC leaders Pat Ford and Marvin Six in bringing four businesses to the former corrugating plant within a few years and in attracting Energy Solutions to build north of it.
Six, the BDC’s assistant director, stressed the new plants won’t supplant businesses operating in the corrugating plant.
Bill D’Alesio, chairman of the BDC’s board of directors, and fellow board member John Frankovitch also credited Hackman Capital Partners of Los Angeles – which bought the property through bankruptcy proceedings for Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel and sold it to the BDC for future development – and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which awarded a $225,000 grant for the property’s rehabilitation.
Commissioner Jim Andreozzi said the site’s proximity to two natural gas lines, the Ohio River and affordable barge transportation needed during the construction have been selling points for the project.
Notes: The upper Ohio River valley in West Virginia is a very depressed area economically so industrial development is welcomed whole-heartedly. But, the continued use of fossil fuels while the officials of the State suppress the development of alternative energy is shameful. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere now exceed 400 ppm and the scientific studies on the effects of global warming are alarming. DGN
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Old plant site has tenant – Oklahoma pipeline company to use Wheeling Corrugating property as staging area — March 5, 2013
By Linda Harris, Weirton Daily Times, March 5, 2013
Beech Bottom, WV – The old Wheeling Corrugating plant has its first tenant, a Tulsa, Okla.-based pipeline company that will be installing a 40-mile-plus section of pipeline from just north of Washington, PA, through the Northern Panhandle to Ohio, bringing hundreds of jobs to the region.
Sheehan Pipeline, a union contractor, will use the site as a staging area, with trailers for its administrative offices and doctors as well as equipment storage.
They’ll be hiring between 400 and 500 union laborers, Teamsters, operating engineers and welders, fitters, journeymen and helpers, at least half of them local, officials explained.
Bringing Power Plants to Brooke County
Editorial, Wheeling Intelligencer, March 6, 2015
Demand for electricity generated at natural gas-fired power plants is up and will increase even more as a result of the Environmental Protection Agency’s campaign to shut down coal-fueled generating stations.
That already has proven to be an opportunity in Marshall County. There, a New York developer plans to build a gas-fired power plant near Moundsville.
Now, a developer linked to the firm involved in Marshall County, operating under a different company name, is considering two power plants in Brooke County.
As we reported this week, Energy Solutions is considering the plants at the site of the old Wheeling Corrugating factory in Beech Bottom.
Commissioners signed memorandums of understanding with the company on Tuesday. But Matt Dorn, one of the firm’s owners, noted the action “is the first step.” He added, however, “It’s a big step, and we’re going to do everything we can to make these projects happen.”
Construction of the plants at Beech Bottom is not a foregone conclusion, two other company representatives cautioned. Sites in Ohio and Pennsylvania also are being considered, they said.
As the experience in Marshall County taught area residents, merely clearing the way for such a venture is a complicated, time-consuming effort. Among other things, various concerns about the depth of county government involvement need to be ironed out. That happened in Marshall County, so it ought to be possible to the north, too.
Area residents also are aware that the long-term benefit of the current gas drilling boom lies at least as much with processors and end-users of the fuel as with finding and producing the gas. The Energy Solutions plan is an example of that.
Construction of the power plants will provide temporary jobs for hundreds of local workers. Once the facilities are completed, each plant will need about 60 employees for operation. The jobs will be good ones, paying about $80,000 a year.
Brooke County commissioners cannot “give away the farm” to land the power plants, of course. There will be limits as to what they can do in cooperating with Energy Solutions. But they should make every reasonable effort to do so – and bring valuable, long-term development to the county.