Charles Grayson, Ph. D. & Ashby Foote Speak to Rotary Club of North Jackson

Charles Grayson, Ph. D. and Ashby Foote of the Bigger Pie Forum spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at its February 4, 2014 meeting. Their subject was the Kemper County, MS Coal Fired Power Plant being built by Mississippi Power Company. Their thesis is that the plant is based on unproven mechanical  technology and that with its vast capital cost overruns from an initially estimated cost of $1.5 billion to $5 billion it is uneconomical even if it is technologically successful. Coal gasification was once used in the 1800s, but its use died out nearly 150 years ago.

Dr. Grayson and Mr. Foote said that the excessive cost of the process will remove an hundreds of millions of dollars annually from Mississippi ratepayers vs. using natural gas in a modern gas fired plant. They also said that the projected natural gas costs that MS Power used to justify the plant are greatly out of line with current Energy Information Agency projections. Dr. Grayson and Mr.Foote are shown below at the meeting. Dr. Grayson is on the left.