The Arkansas attorney general’s office and the general staff of the state Public Service Commission told the commission Wednesday they have no objections to Entergy Arkansas’ plans to supply electricity to a steel mill to be built near Osceola.
Entergy plans to spend $81.6 million to build a new substation and two 230-kilowatt transmission lines to supply electricity to the $1.1 billion Big River Steel mill, which will employ 525 workers making an annual average income of $75,000, including bonuses. Each transmission line will be about three miles long.
Construction on the plant is to begin this fall, with completion set for 2015. The commission must approve the rates for the electricity for the plant.
The state Legislature recently approved providing $125 million in incentives for the steel mill, which will be developed by steel magnate John Correnti, former chief executive officer at Nucor Corp.
None of the cost of building the substation and transmission lines should be borne by other Entergy ratepayers, John Bethel, executive director of the com-mission’s general staff, said in an interview. Revenue from Entergy’s electric contract with Big River Steel should eventually cover those costs, Bethel said.
Dickie Kennemore, mayor of Osceola, told the commission during the public-comment period that the plant “is a godsend” for the area.
“This is what we’ve been looking for for 20 years,” Kennemore said. “Big River Steel will be a great economic boost to our economy. But it will also be a quality-of-life issue. It will allow these hardworking, unskilled and untrained workers an opportunity to have the American dream, to send their kids to [college] and buy a home.”
In recent years, the area has missed out on two other major steel mills - a $2.9 billion, 2,700-employee Thyssen Krupp AG steel plant that went to Mobile, Ala., in 2007 and Correnti’s $800 million, 450-employee steel plant that eventually was built in Columbus, Miss., in 2005.
In an interview before Wednesday’s hearing, Kennemore said the area also will benefit from ancillary companies that will build operations near Big River Steel.
“The big push will come after [Big River Steel] is started,” Kennemore said.
Kennemore expects as many as 2,500 jobs to be created when suppliers and vendors for Big River Steel build facilities near it. He based that estimate on the 5,000 jobs that were created from companies locating near Nucor Corp.’s two steel mills, which also are in Mississippi County.
Osceola and Mississippi County are already getting interest from such companies about locating near the new plant, Kennemore said.
The commission said it expects to have a decision on the case by May 20.
Business, Pages 23 on 05/02/2013