Ellington

A Mississippi Public Service Commission attorney gathering information for a second-phase hearing on the workability of a proposed $2.4 billion coal plant in Kemper County withdrew her participation from the issue this morning.

The Mississippi Chapter of the Sierra Club filed a motion on Friday to remove attorney Katherine Briggs Collier "from any further substantive participation" in the proceedings, arguing that Briggs' father, Eddie Briggs, is a principal in Kemper Natural Resources, LLC, the company purchasing mineral leases and land for the Kemper County coal plant. Whether the plant will be constructed is being debated before the commission this week.The Jackson Free Press broke the story here Friday afternoon.

Briggs' father has a long-term contract with Mississippi Power—the company seeking to build the plant. As of late Friday, the Secretary of State's Web site listed Briggs as an agent for Kemper Resources, LLC.

An information request to the Mississippi Power Company by the Sierra Club describes Briggs as assisting in "the acquisition of mineral leases to be used for the development of the lignite mine in conjunction with North American Coal Corp. and in other negotiations regarding land acquisitions for the proposed IGCC generating facility and related rights of way and fee properties."

"Given this is the most important matter to come before this commission in decades, it is extremely important to all parties that the process be fair in fact and appearance," wrote Sierra Club attorney Robert Wiygul in the motion.

Commissioners approved a motion denying that Collier had an influence in the hearing, saying her work extended only to "procedural" work. They then declared the motion moot because of the Collier's personal decision to remove herself from the process on Friday.

"The Sierra Club's assertion that she is the only attorney is erroneous because the PSC has numerous attorneys at its disposal," said Mississippi Public Service Commission Executive Secretary Brian Ray, reading aloud a motion specifying that the PSC had the counsel of attorneys from the National Regulatory Research Institute and two attorneys on the Public Utilities Staff.

Commissioner Brandon Presley added that the PSC also had access to attorney Frank Spencer, assigned by Attorney General Jim Hood to the commission last year "to provide the commission with independent advice separate from advice given by the attorney general's office."

Spencer's independence is imperative because Hood is suing a different power company, Entergy Mississippi, over allegations of over-charging rate-payers for electricity.

In January 2008, Mississippi Power Company filed a certificate of public convenience with the PSC, asking for permission to begin setting aside 48,000 square acres of Kemper County land for lignite coal-mining and the construction of a 582-megawatt lignite coal-burning plant using technology that, at the moment, doesn't exist.

The company maintains that it needs to balance the volatile natural gas market with a plant that burns a more economically stable fuel, like coal. Opponents argue that the plant costs too much and will raise Mississippi Power customer rates.

The second-phase hearing will continue this week until Friday, Public Service Commissioners will then decide on granting a certificate of public convenience.