The Kentucky Public Service Commission has granted a requestby American Electric Power to withdraw a pending application to retrofit the company's Big Sandy Power Plant in Lawrence County.AEP had originally asked for approval to spend nearly a billion dollars retrofitting the plant to comply with upcoming federal air pollution standards. The plan was to keep burning coal there, and in testimony and evidence company representatives maintained the fuel was still the most cost-effective source of energy for the plant. Environmental groups disagreed, arguing that a mix of natural gas, renewable energy and efficiency measures could replace the plant's electricity capacity at the lowest cost to rate payers.Yesterday, AEP filed to withdraw that application, and now says it will re-evaluate its alternatives for Big Sandy.
