Groups file new petition to stop SWEPCO coal plant

Opponents of a $2.1 billion power plant in southwestern Arkansas want the state Public Service Commission to stop construction of the plant.

The Southwestern Electric Power Co. has finished more than three-quarters of the John W. Turk Power Plant after getting clearance four years ago from the Public Service Commission to build it.

The Arkansas Supreme Court revoked the PSC’s approval in 2010.

SWEPCO officials then said they wouldn’t try to recover the cost of the plant through electric rates, which they said exempted them from getting a key document from the commission.

The Tuesday filing with the PSC by the Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society says SWEPCO’s partner in the project, the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation, should have had to go before the commission and didn’t.

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