Governor
Orders Six Month Moratorium on New Power Plants 6/26/01
With a recent influx of power plant construction permits being requested, Kentucky Governor Paul Patton on June 19 issued a moratorium on new power plants in Kentucky. The Kentucky Natural Resources & Environmental Protection Cabinet and Kentucky Public Service Commission are studying the issue and will report their findings to the Governor by December 7, 2001. Since October 1999, the state Division for Air Quality (DAQ) has received applications for permits for approximately 24 electric generating units, including coal and gas fired
units. DAQ has issued permits for 13 of those units, while applications for eight other plants are under review by the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet.
Gov. Patton's order does not affect any applications that have already been filed with the cabinet or the commission and the suspension on accepting new permits will not exceed 180 days. Construction has begun on some of the power plants.
Most of these new plants are so-called "merchant plants" -
meaning they don't have designated customers but instead will sell electricity to willing buyers in or out of state. Most will use natural gas, not coal, and they will be
"peaking" plants that would operate only when demand for electricity is high. Gov. Patton imposed the moratorium on state power plant permits to give policy-makers time to determine what role the wholesale-power market should play in Kentucky's economic development and how the industry should be taxed. Tom Dorman, executive director of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, which regulates electric utilities, told the state's Electric Restructuring Task Force last month that the current generating capacity of plants in Kentucky is about 17,000 megawatts. If all the new plants being considered are built, he said, they would add 6,400 megawatts, a 38 percent increase, with most of that likely being exported to other states.
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With a recent influx of power plant construction permits being requested, Kentucky Governor Paul Patton on June 19 issued a moratorium on new power plants in Kentucky. The Kentucky Natural Resources & Environmental Protection Cabinet and Kentucky Public Service Commission are studying the issue and will report their findings to the Governor by December 7, 2001. Since October 1999, the state Division for Air Quality (DAQ) has received applications for permits for approximately 24 electric generating units, including coal and gas fired
units. DAQ has issued permits for 13 of those units, while applications for eight other plants are under review by the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet.
Gov. Patton's order does not affect any applications that have already been filed with the cabinet or the commission and the suspension on accepting new permits will not exceed 180 days. Construction has begun on some of the power plants. 