Don't invest in Coal

[dan_s]

Mississippi regulators tell Southern Co. to use natural gas instead of coal. E&E News. Southern Co.'s $7.5 billion clean coal plant in Mississippi should run as a natural gas plant, state regulators said yesterday, throwing a gut punch to the utility's hopes of recovering billions of dollars in cost overruns and paving the way for next-generation coal plants. The plant has been running on natural gas for years, and each of Kemper's two gasifiers has successfully produced electricity from synthetic gas. But Mississippi Power, the Southern Co. unit building the plant, has struggled to keep the plant's complex systems running nonstop. That has delayed its full startup. The surprisingly aggressive move by the three-member panel of Mississippi regulators is a significant financial and political setback for Southern, which has promoted the idea of building a coal plant. Mississippi Power, for its part, could be stuck with a massive bill the state won't allow it to pass on to electricity customers. Instead, the state Public Service Commission wants the utility to plan on running on gas.