Via press release from the KY Resources Council
The KY Public Service Commission (PSC) issued a significant decision on November 6 in a case brought by Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities Company (LG&E-KU). The order will have major long-term impacts not only for LG&E-KU’s ratepayers, but for the future of energy and the environment in the Commonwealth.
In the order, the Commission denied construction of one of two proposed gas-fired electricity plants, approved the retirement of two uneconomic coal plants and three gas plants while deferring retirement of two other coal plants, and approved a major buildout of solar facilities, a utility-scale battery plant, and a significant expansion of customer energy efficiency programs.
KRC and Earthjustice represented Mountain Association, Metropolitan Housing Coalition, Kentucky Solar Energy Society, and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, participating jointly as intervenors, in the case. Although KRC and our clients were disappointed with the Commission’s approval of a new natural gas plant and choice to keep two aging coal plants open, the order made significant advances for cleaner and less carbon-intensive energy in Kentucky and indicates that the PSC recognizes the economic and environmental risks to ratepayers of continued investments in new and existing fossil fuel plants. Read more from the press release from Earthjustice here.
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