Work on Mississippi IGCC Job Continues Despite Controversy

The Mississippi Public Service Commission on March 30 voted 2-1 to grant a temporary certificate of public convenience and necessity to utility Mississippi Power's 582-MW integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) project in Kemper County. The move enables the utility to continue construction work while the commission develops a response to the Mississippi Supreme Court's unanimous March 15 ruling that PSC had failed to sufficiently justify its May 2010 decision to grant the project a certificate and cap its recoverable costs at $2.88 billion. Commissioner Brandon Presley noted that the project being advanced by the issuance of the temporary certificate is "the same project that the state's highest court stripped of certification as unsupported by evidence just days ago." He advocates "putting down the shovel" on the project, on which Mississippi Power already has spent about $1 billion.