Ohio Citizen Action questions state subsidies to AMP-Ohio Coal Plant

Ohio Citizen Action Executive Director Sandy Buchanan today sent a letter to Governor Ted Strickland questioning whether state subsidies should be granted to AMP-Ohio's proposed new coal plant in Meigs County. Ohio Citizen Action reviewed a series of state documents obtained under Ohio public records law, which showed that the state is considering a wide variety of public subsidies to AMP-Ohio, though after three years of discussion, no specific package has been announced. In her letter to the governor, Buchanan concludes, "It appears from the records provided to us that something is wrong here. Either the project needs the subsidy or it doesn’t. If the former, then the public and those municipal electric systems were not told the whole truth about the project’s finances when their city councils voted to sign 50-year contracts. If the latter, then why toss public money out the window at a time when you are cutting basic services?" Because correspondence between AMP-Ohio and the State of Ohio also indicated that West Virginia may have been in competition for this plant, Ohio Citizen Action also wrote to West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin asking whether West Virginia had offered subsidies to AMP-Ohio.