Alcoa: No reason to delay Yadkin permit

Alcoa Power Generating Inc. has filed a statement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on why there's no reason to delay granting another permit to operate the Yadkin River hydroelectric generating units it operates. Here's a link.

Alcoa says “The present effort to block the issuance of the license via the challenge to the Section 401 Certification is yet another attempt to end-run around the Commission’s long-established relicensing procedures.”

The 11-page filing also notes, “The Commission’s precedent is clear: its practice is to issue a license to the applicant when its record is complete and a 401 certification has been received, regardless of whether an appeal of a Section 401 water quality certification is pending before state administrative agencies or courts, even if the certification has been stayed.”

Alcoa's 50-year federal license to operate the dams expired in 2008 and the company came close to getting it renewed last year. Since then, Gov. Bev Perdue has taken a position that the company ought not get the license renewal because it no longer has a substantial workforce in this state. Alcoa once employed about 1,000 workers at its Badin aluminum smelter. The General Assembly appears to be moving toward passage of a bill creating a Yadkin River Trust that might one day buy and take over operation of the hydro plants.