CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Concern from members of the coal industry continues to dominate the conversation on a new proposal to build a natural gas power plant in Harrison County.
Appearing on the MetroNews-affiliated “The Mike Queen Show” on the AJR News Network, West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney added his voice to the growing number of those concerned by the project’s potential impact on the Harrison Power Station and coal miners in Harrison and Marion counties.
“I don’t have any problem with our friends in the gas industry at all, but when they talk about wanting to compete on a level playing field then let’s make sure that field is level,” said Raney.
Raney said the focus should be continuing to support the Harrison Power Station which burns around five million tons of coal per year.
“If we need to improve Harrison, how do we do that and join together and make sure that continues on?” he said.
The belief is that adding the less labor-intensive natural gas power plant will hurt the jobs of coal miners and Harrison Power Station jobs because demand for coal will go down.
“Five million tons of coal–you know that’s a huge amount of coal,” said Raney. “Keeps a lot of our coal miners working.”
A preliminary agreement to fund the station has been reached by a Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (or PILOT) program. The proposed gas plant would pay $600,000 per year to Harrison County with an annual 2.5 percent increase over a 30-year period.
The Harrison Power Station currently employs several hundred people.
“They are doing everything right,” said Raney, referring to Harrison Power Station. “They’ve been a great neighbor up there for a long, long time.”