Wednesday, Mississippi’s Public Service Commission sent an unequivocal message to Mississippi Power: You will not gamble with the rate-payers’ money.
The three-member PSC — chairman Brandon Presley (Northern District), Cecil Brown (Central) and Sam Britton (Southern) — voted unanimously to notify the power company, which provides electricity to more than 187,000 homes and business in the state’s 23 southern-most counties, that its experimental “clean-coal” power plant in Kemper County can continue to operate only on natural gas, which it has been doing for more than two years now.
If Mississippi Power wants to experiment, it can do it somewhere else and with its own money, thank you.
The PSC ordered that the company should not expect rate payers to pay any portion of the company’s $6.5 billion in losses for the facility, which has yet to prove its experimental coal production system will actually work.
The PSC further ordered the company cannot raise rates beyond what they are now.
Mississippi Power has 45 days to respond, but has little room to negotiate. The PSC has the big stick and seems intent on using it.
This may seem to have little to do with folks here in the Golden Triangle, which gets none of its electricity from Mississippi Power.
But the PSC has often acted in ways which have benefited regular folks throughout the state.
Closer to home, when Southern Cross proposed building a $700 million wind-power transmission line across the state, the PSC said the company had to meet certain conditions, chief among them that the company would make every effort to make sure Mississippi contractors had a fair shot at the construction jobs the project will create and that the biggest component of the project, a $300-million converter station, would be built in Lowndes County rather than across the state line in Alabama.
The PSC may be the only entity in our state that makes sure taxpayers are getting a fair shake when the state negotiates with big companies for new projects.
Over the past half dozen years, our state leaders — through the Mississippi Development Authority — have given hundreds of millions of taxpayer-funded incentives to companies to recruit out-of-state industries.
While we recognize the importance of making our state attractive to these companies, we also expect our leaders exhibit prudence and restraint. That means making deals that benefit industry and regular folks alike. “If we give you this, this is what we want you to do for our citizens.”
Thus far, we haven’t seen any of that sort of even-handed bargaining.
Two years ago, during a visit to Columbus, Gov. Phil Bryant said the only regret he had in bringing Yokohama to West Point was that he wasn’t able to give them more taxpayer money.
That pretty much sums up the state’s attitude. It’s insulting and reckless, to say the least.
It’s far past time the state follows the PSC’s lead in looking out for the little guy.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 52 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.