Plans to put the largest solar farm ever built in Kentucky on top of a surface-mined mountain are in limbo because Kentucky Fuel, a coal company years behind in the cleanup that must come first, is dragging its feet. The $150 million project was proposed a year ago, and would be located on Bent Mountain in Pike County in the easternmost part of the state, James Bruggers reports for Inside Climate News.
If the project is not ready to go in 2019 or 2020, the federal tax breaks for renewable energy projects begin to decrease, making it less economically feasible. "If Kentucky Fuel would do what they said they would do there wouldn't be a problem," said Ryan Johns, one of the farm's developers and the vice president of Ross Harris Group, which is comprised of more than 30 companies that focus on coal, oil, gas, timber and real estate.
"Four years ago, settling one of the largest enforcement actions in Kentucky's recent history, the coal company's owners promised state officials that they would compete a tangle of reclamation work spread over several counties by September 2015," Bruggers reports. "But the case has dragged on in court. It's a fight that involves one of the most powerful families in the region, headed by Jim Justice, the billionaire coal baron who is now governor of West Virginia."
If the project is not ready to go in 2019 or 2020, the federal tax breaks for renewable energy projects begin to decrease, making it less economically feasible. "If Kentucky Fuel would do what they said they would do there wouldn't be a problem," said Ryan Johns, one of the farm's developers and the vice president of Ross Harris Group, which is comprised of more than 30 companies that focus on coal, oil, gas, timber and real estate.
"Four years ago, settling one of the largest enforcement actions in Kentucky's recent history, the coal company's owners promised state officials that they would compete a tangle of reclamation work spread over several counties by September 2015," Bruggers reports. "But the case has dragged on in court. It's a fight that involves one of the most powerful families in the region, headed by Jim Justice, the billionaire coal baron who is now governor of West Virginia."
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2sfkOZ8 Plans for solar panels on mined Ky. mountain could depend on greenlighting more mining - Entrepreneur Generations
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