LITTLE ROCK — Utility asks to reopen plant-scrubber issue
Southwestern Electric Power Co. asked the Arkansas Public Service Commission on Friday to reopen the record in a case in which the utility is asking for approval to install a $408 million scrubber on a coal plant in Northwest Arkansas.
SWEPCO and Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Corp.
are equal owners of the 528-megawatt Flint Creek plant near Gentry. They want to install the scrubber to minimize pollution levels.
The commission has argued that SWEPCO hasn’t proved that the scrubber is the most economical option to upgrade the plant.
SWEPCO said in its filing Friday that if the record is reopened, business leaders in Northwest Arkansas will provide testimony supporting the installation of the scrubber. It said Southwest Power Pool, which coordinates the electric grid in the area, would testify that retiring the plant would potentially affect the integrity of the electricity transmission system.
The general staff of the commission said Friday that it was not opposed to reopening the record.
The Sierra Club environmental group says it opposes reopening the case.
- David Smith Rising water allows opening of river pass
With water levels rising on the lower Mississippi River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will open a navigation pass at noon today at the Montgomery Point Lock and Dam, permitting barges and other water traffic to transit between the Mississippi and the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System for the first time in two weeks.
Barges have collected on both sides of the locks waiting for the channel to open.
Montgomery Point, the farthest east lock on the McClellan-Kerr system, was closed for gate repairs Dec. 1. The Corps of Engineers had estimated repairs would take three weeks, which would have been the longest shutdown of the river system in memory.
The gate repairs still are expected to take another week, but rising waters levels allowed a pass to open that doesn’t require use of the locks.
The Corps also will suspend until Jan. 2 its daily four-hour scheduled maintenance on five locks on the western half of the river system to allow heavy river traffic more time to pass through.
- Lisa Hammersly Arkansas Index inches up to 242.72
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 0.10 to 242.72 Friday.
For the week, nine stocks were up and seven fell. Arkansas Best added 6 percent and Wal-Mart declined 4.9 percent.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 27 on 12/15/2012