CFACT’s Collegian chapter at the University of Arkansas sent a representative to the Arkansas Public Service Commission hearing on the SWEPCO coal plant in Northwest Arkansas on October 9th. SWEPCO has pledged $400 million dollars to upgrade the plant to meet new and onerous EPA standards – but that’s not good enough for the Sierra Club who want’s SWEPCO to replace the plant with a natural gas plant.
CFACT member Kenny Wallis testified that University of Arkansas students were generally supportive of coal plants based on a survey CFACT conducted in 2010 that showed 79% supported clean coal plants. Wallis also took the Sierra Club to task for their disingenuous suggestion to switch the plant (at much greater cost) to natural gas. The Sierra club left out their opposition to fracking, which makes natural gas affordable, opposition to building pipelines, which would be necessary to fuel a natural gas plant, and opposition to natural gas itself, see their new ‘beyond gas’ campaign.
At the conclusion of Kenny’s statement, the Commission Chairman closed the meeting by stating “Thank you Mr. Wallis, we ended with a bang!”
