Published: September 18, 2008 10:45 pm      

Official blames DOE for Co-Gen failure

RUPERT — A Western Greenbrier Co-Generation official Thursday blamed the U.S. Department of Energy and environmental groups for the demise of the $416 million coal-fired power plant that recently had its federal funding pulled.

Co-Gen chief technical officer Wayne Brown spoke for two hours, detailing the demise of the Rainelle power plant to a crowd of about 15. Brown said the group was not giving up and would be filing claims against the DOE for what he described as “illegal actions.”

No other members of the Co-Gen team were present at the informational meeting. When asked why, Brown responded, “I guess they felt it wasn’t necessary to be here tonight.”

Brown reviewed the highs and lows of the five-year project dating back to 2003 when DOE officials announced Western Greenbrier Co-Gen had been awarded $107.5 million to build the $215 million power plant that would have been fueled primarily from coal waste.

Brown said delays in the project contributed to constructions costs that doubled to $416 million by early 2008. Brown said all the necessary hurdles had been cleared prior to the DOE eliminating the plant’s funding on June 16. Brown did not publicly disclose the plant’s demise until three months later.

“In terms of money spent to get to where we are, we spent about $16 million to get all the design work done and get the permits in place,” Brown said.

Brown said 11 percent of that comprised salaries, and over half of the money went to contractors. Another $250,000 was spent for traveling expenses.

Brown also revealed salary levels for himself and co-manager Gary Skidmore topped out at $140,000 per year. However, both had deferred a large portion of that money to be paid after bonds had been issued for the plant’s construction. The co-managers were being paid approximately $75,000 per year, he said. Skidmore retired last week from the project.

“We agreed to do our part and have our salaries deferred,” Brown said. “If phase two happens, then the back pay was due.”

Brown said a sequence of events beginning in November 2006 “is where the troubles began.”

“We were ready from a design point of view, but the (government) process was not completed,” he said. “The final Environmental Impact Statement was not issued until we applied every single bit of political pressure that we could. We would have the plant well under construction had it not been for the delays.”

Brown then said local environmental groups “kind of went bananas” and added to the project’s already extended construction timelines. Brown said the groups’ appeal of an air quality permit was called “nonsense” by a Kanawha County judge.

“All of these delays running parallel with the delays getting our record of decision were causing substantial difficulties,” he said.

Brown said the DOE canceled the program exactly one day after the final permit was issued.

“We intend to file claims against the DOE on the basis they acted illegally in denying our funding,” he said.

Brown said he did not feel it would have been appropriate to publicly reveal the government had discontinued funding for the project on June 16 because efforts were being made to secure more funding.

At the time, the group had also defaulted on about $6 million in state loans, but Brown said Thursday those loans did not affect the overall demise of the project.

One resident asked Brown if he bore any responsibility for the plant’s failure.

“Did we make mistakes? You bet,” Brown said.

When asked to respond to a Sept. 5 Register-Herald story where Co-Gen official Bill Shiffer blamed Brown for much of the project’s failure, Brown took it in stride.

“Bill was having a bad day that day,” Brown said. “My conscience is absolutely clear.”

— E-mail: cgiggenbach@register-herald.com