Utility Makes Changes To Proposed Lignite Plant

SHELIA BYRD

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Power Co. has altered plans for a $2 billion plant in Kemper County to seek additional grant funds from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The plant will now be designed to capture 65 percent of carbon emissions from converting so-called brown coal, or lignite, into gas fuel. The original plan was to capture half of the carbon that would be stored underground, said Todd Terrell, the utility's director of corporate communications.

Terrell said the change was a pre-emptive move because the next round of DOE grant funding would hold applicants to a 65-percent standard. The utility already has received a $270 million DOE grant and $133 million in investment tax credits under the National Energy Policy Act of 2005.

"When we looked at the whole project, to go back and try to get federal funds to get to 65 percent would mean that you're tearing down new stuff," Terrell said in an interview this week.

Terrell also said the utility was negotiating with an oil company to purchase the carbon dioxide, but he declined to name the company or release details about the proposed contract. Oil companies pump carbon dioxide into oil reservoirs to flood the system and force petroleum to the surface.