A $416 million facelift on the Cannelton Locks and Dam began in May. When the project is finished in 2013, the hydroelectric facility there is expected to generate 84 megawatts of power.
TOLEDO – “‘Trust me,’ said Marc Gerken, AMP president and chief executive officer. ‘It’s fun running a hydro plant compared to a coal plant.’”
“[Napoleon City Manager Jon Bisher, who also chairs AMP's board of directors] said he was disappointed by the backlash AMP received over the Meigs County project. He said some environmentalists who once viewed AMP as an ally for helping to bring wind power to Ohio never accepted AMP’s plans to mitigate the proposed coal-fired power plant’s impact with state-of-the-art pollution controls. To environmentalists, the Meigs County project was just another dirty coal plant in the making, Mr. Bisher said. Through their campaigns, activists enlisted people to flood mailboxes. Mr. Bisher said he received what seemed like 100 letters a day from opponents. ‘I will tell you my life has gotten considerably easier from an environmentalist point of view,’ he said. ‘You certainly don’t get those letters when you’re doing a run-of-the-river hydro project.’”
“AMP maintains its decision to pull away from the Meigs County project was in response to changing market conditions and increased labor costs — not pressure from environmentalists. ‘It was totally a numbers thing,’ Mr. Gerken said.”
- Tom Henry, Toledo Blade
Recent Comments