Hearings held on Kinder Morgan permit

Proposed 550-megawatt power plant

Business Today

JEFFERSON CITY -- The fate of a proposed $250 million power plant in Cape Girardeau County could hinge on the outcome of an administrative hearing held May 14-16.

Kinder Morgan Power Co. is appealing the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' denial of a permit to build and operate a 550-megawatt facility south of Crump along Route U. The two sides differ on whether the installation of expensive equipment to reduce air pollution is needed for the plant to comply with state and federal clean air regulations.

John Springborn, the administrative law judge presiding over the case, said he has taken the matter under advisement and will issue a decision within 30 days.

John Cowling, a St. Louis attorney on the legal team representing Kinder Morgan, said the pollution controls DNR have demanded are required only in urban areas with poor air quality. In the case of the proposed Cape Girardeau facility, the equipment would be needed only if cost-effective. Cowling said installing the equipment would be financially prohibitive.

The type of technology at issue -- selective catalytic reduction -- would reduce nitrous oxide emissions.

The company said the pollution controls would cost $10,000 per ton processed, while DNR's own analysis shows a cost of $5,000 per ton wouldn't be cost-effective.

Cowling called DNR's decision to reject the permit "arbitrary and capricious" and inconsistent with past department practices. He said plants identical to that proposed in Cape Girardeau County have been approved in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Michigan. Other permit requests are pending in seven other states.

Assistant attorney general Shelley Woods, representing DNR, said Kinder Morgan's cost figures were inflated and that the company rebuffed attempts by engineers with the department's air pollution control program to reach a compromise.

Woods said DNR strictly followed established produces in reviewing and rejecting the company's permit application.

Both sides called expert witnesses to testify on the accuracy of the competing claims. Richard Kinder, a Cape Girardeau County native, is chairman and chief executive officer of the company's corporate parent, Kinder Morgan Inc. of Houston, Texas.