Friday, June 12, 2009

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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A Water Quality 401 permit is required to receive the FERC license. It seems like there is a posibility of a legal mess in the event that the FERC license is received, then the disputed 401 permit is overturned. One would think that FERC wouldn't put the cart in front of the horse so to speak, and not issue the license

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