Healy plant questions go unanswered

To the editor:

I wish I knew why the AIDEA, and by extension the state, simply forgot one of the most fundamental basics in business; know your costs before you start a project.

But at least when it comes to the attempt to resurrect the failed Healy Coal plant, that’s what they seem determined to do.

They are willing to commit millions of dollars into helping Golden Valley Electric without answering questions as to what the costs of operating it will actually be, and whether or not those costs will make the plant viable; how much are the new greenhouse and mercury emission rules going to cost? It’s a simple question, but one no one seems willing to answer.

It’s particularly pertinent in this case, when you consider that running the Healy plant has already been attempted before during far better economic times, and it’s failed, because it simply wasn’t feasible financially. So no one even knows how much money it’s going to take to actually allow it to run, but even without that knowledge, millions of taxpayer dollars are still being committed to the project? Talk about a disconnect in logic.

That’s not even mentioning the question of whether we want to be dumping mercury into our groundwaters, or if there aren’t better sources of power for us to pursue, or what advantage ratepayers will actually see in their rates. To me, that’s enough to put a project on hold and at the very least make the full operating costs known, so a truly informed decision can be made.

Michael Miller

Palmer