Commissioners Bloom, Hawkins, and Sikora
NOTICE — On December 16, 2020, the Monongalia County Commission sitting in Morgantown, WV, adopted “payment in-lieu of taxes” or PILOT agreements on behalf of two proposed projects, The Mountain State Clean Energy LLC is a 1200 MW plant to be fired with natural gas AND Mountain State Renewables LLC is a 70 MW solar panel array facility. Both are proposed for Ft. Martin, WV, north of Morgantown and essentially on the Mason Dixon Line.
Two coal-fired power plants already operate at Ft. Martin, the Ft. Martin plant at 1100 MW and the Longview Power facility at 700 MW. Both use stack gas scrubbers for sulfur dioxide control, but generate thousands of tons of coal ash and scrubber waste for local disposal continuously.
The Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition and the WV Sierra Club opposed the proposed gas-fired “Clean” energy plant for various reasons including the excessive greenhouse gases (GHG) that will be generated. The protest list below was presented to the Mon County Commission before the vote.
Both Mountain State PILOT Agreements were approved in a single resolution three (3) to zero (0). A PILOT Agreement for the coal-fired Longview Energy plant has been in force from the beginning of its operation in 2011 and remains active for the foreseeable future.
SEE MEETING VIDEO HERE: Monongalia County Commission Dec. 16, 2020 – YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt8DLPYF7ic
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PROTEST MEMORANDUM FROM M.V.C.A.C. PRESENTED ORALLY ON DECEMBER 16, 2020
RE: AGENDA OF MON. COUNTY COMM. FOR 12/16/20. Item C. To consider approval of documents related to Mountain State Clean Energy LLC & Mountain State Renewable LLC
1. These activities today are too important to our County, State and Nation to be finalized without the full and open consideration that informs the public, provides time for consideration and provides a public comment process.
2. The name Mountain State Clean Energy LLC is very inappropriate, misleading and inconsistent with the industry and with public usage. This proposed fossil fueled power plant will involve thousands of tons of emissions and effluents including acid gases, fine and ultrafine particulates, as well as greenhouse gases galore; it will not be “clean.”
3. The Conditions # 4 and 5 of the FACILITY DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT(s) specify that the power company will hold the “Deed” and this Monongalia County Commission will hold the “Lease” during plant operations, over 30 years. If that is the case, this Commission will not actually own the facility, so said facility will not be exempt of ad valorem taxes.
4. Should the power company become bankrupt, their possession of the Deed will put our County at the mercy of the bankruptcy court. So, this problem should be corrected so that Monongalia County is the holder of the Deed.
5. Should this PILOT agreement be declared illegal or unconstitutional, which is quite possible, given that such questions are currently before the West Virginia courts, then the fact that the power company holds the Deed will be problematic. So, these problems should be corrected so that Monongalia County is the holder of the Deed.
6. Alternatively, a third party Trustee should be designated as the Deed holder so as to protect all parties to these agreements from these unanticipated circumstances.
7. Our Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition (MVCAC) provided this Commission yesterday with copies to each Commissioner of a West Virginia Law Review article entitled “PILOT AGREEMENTS IN WEST VIRGINIA: A TALE OF TURBULENT TAXATION.” This document was published on December 13, 2020, just this week, and brings forward many issues, including that PILOT agreements are not well established in the law.
8. Finally, on Monday of this week, the WVU Center for Energy & Sustainable Development issued an extensive and in-depth report titled “West Virginia’s Energy Future.” This presents a plan to ramp up renewable energy to decrease costs, reduce risks, and strengthen economic opportunities here in West Virginia. This report is the subject of in-depth articles today in both the Morgantown Dominion Post and in the Charleston Gazette Mail. The full report is now available on the World Wide Web (Internet).
Duane G. Nichols, Coordinator, Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition,
330 Dream Catcher Circle, Morgantown, WV 26508.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I received a reply from one Commissioner, Bloom, a mealy thing about how it had been approved at the state level.
Seems to me that doesn’t mean they had to approve the PILOT agreement, and they could have had a public comment period.
But, I think, all governments and universities are kept financially desperate so they’ll agree to unsavory corporate “deals.”