LITTLE ROCK — Supporters of House Bill 1895, which has broad legislative backing and would alter the procedure for approving the building of power plants, Tuesday agreed to make changes in the bill to satisfy Gov. Mike Beebe.
The measure was drafted by Southwestern Electric Power Co. and Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Corp., majority and minority owners, respectively, of the $2.1 billion coal-fired plant still under construction and more than 50 percent complete near Texarkana.
The Arkansas Public Service Commission approved construction of the 600-megawatt John W. Turk Jr. Plant in 2007.
But the Arkansas Supreme Court last year unanimously overturned the commission’s approval, which was granted in two hearings. One established the need; the second approved the construction of the plant. The court said the law, the Utility Facility Environmental and Economic Protection Act of 1973, calls for the action to be done in one hearing.
SWEPCO continues to build the Turk plant as it faces appeals to lawsuits about the plant. One lawsuit concerns the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ issuance of a wetlands permit covering 8.5 acres at SWEPCO’s 2,875-acre plant site.
Beebe had said he was concerned about two sections of the bill, which would amend the Utility Facility Environmental and Economic Protection Act of 1973.
Neither of the two sections dealt with hearing procedures. One section couldbe construed as establishing retroactive authority in plant approval. The other may have had the appearance of not allowing state courts to rule on decisions made by the commission.
After meeting with Beebe on Tuesday afternoon, Rep. David Powers, D-Hope, the lead sponsor in the House, said he agreed to the changes.
“We are going to offer an amendment [today] that takes the retroactive part out of the bill,” Powers said, adding that similar changes will be made to fix part of the bill concerning judicial review of commission rulings.
With the changes, “[Beebe] will not oppose our bill,” Powers said.
The bill, if passed, now would allow the commission to use two hearings for approving construction of a power plant.
The altered bill would not “change the landscape a great deal,” Powers said.
“This is going to close a loophole that gives the PSC more discretion in how they want to hold their hearings,” Powers said.
Venita McCellon-Allen, SWEPCO’s president and chief operating officer, said that if the changes help the bill pass, “it will be good for Arkansas.”
“This bill wasn’t ever about SWEPCO,” McCellon-Allen said. “It was about a lot of people working on the state of Arkansas to help support major investments.”
Lev Guter, associate field organizer for the Sierra Club in Arkansas, said his organization would have to see the changes in writing before commenting on the bill.
Even with those changes, Guter said, the organization still has problems with the bill.
“There needs to be [only] one proceeding for all of the evidence and public comment to be taken into account,” Guter said.
Beebe was approached before this year’s session and told that legislation likely would be introduced to address whether the commission could use two cases to determine the need for power for a utility and the need for a power plant, DeCample said. The commission had used two proceedings for years.
Beebe had “no objection to that” continuing, DeCample said.
The bill has 53 co-sponsors in the House, a majority, and eight sponsors in the Senate, only five votes short of a majority. The bill also has bipartisan support. Thirty-three of the 53 House sponsors are Democrats. Six of the 13 sponsors in the Senate are Democrats.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/09/2011