MORGANTOWN — A representative of the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club said he is “increasingly concerned and disappointed” with the Monongalia County Commission over the what the Sierra Club views as a lack of transparency in regard to Longview Power.
The commission’s response on Wednesday? Likewise.
The commission is negotiating a PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, with Longview Power for a $1.1 billion solar and natural gas expansion to accompany the coal-fired power plant on Fort Martin Road.
The Sierra Club has spoken out in opposition to the expansion over fears of additional emissions, the dangers of natural gas pipelines and a lack of demand for additional electricity production.
Jim Kotcon, representing the Sierra Club, presented the commission with a Freedom of Information request on Wednesday and asked why negotiations for the deal — estimated to be worth $58.2 million to the county over 30 years — are being held in private. He pointed to a joint county commission, board of education work session held in executive session on Tuesday as an example.
This will actually be the second such agreement between the power producer and the county. As incentive to build the existing 710 megawatt, $2.2 billion coal plant locally, Longview signed a PILOT agreement in 2003 worth $105 million over 40 years.
Also part of that agreement, according to the commission, was a deal with the Sierra Club — under the name Appalachian Stewardship Foundation — to receive $500,000 a year from Longview for efforts like stream and forest remediation.
To date, Commissioner Tom Bloom said, the club has received $4 million, but spent only $355,400 on these efforts.
“If I give $100 to a nonprofit, then I expect $100 to go to them. You only spent $8 of it,” Bloom said. “I think for the public’s record, I’d appreciate if you’d come back next week with a clarification of where these funds went and how you spent them because that was part of the agreement … You’re telling us about funding and you have a concern. I have a real concern about our funds, the board of education’s funds and the taxpayer funds when you got $4 million and only spent $355,400.”
Bloom said he would be willing to forward the matter on to the prosecuting attorney’s office if the Sierra Club cannot account for the money.
However, according to an internal email from Longview President and CEO Jeffery Keffer dated Jan. 7, the Appalachian Stewardship Foundation had received $4 million between 2011 and Dec. 31, 2019. Of that amount, $355,400 was spent on stream and forest remediation; $1,600,106.51 is in an ASF bank account and $1,244,609 has been spent on “lawyers and other activities.”
The email is to Longview employee Amanda Bolyard and includes the message, “Amanda – I would like Tom Bloom to receive a hard copy of this email.”
Commissioner Sean Sikora said the county is still in negotiations. He also challenged the claim that the commission is not transparent.
“I challenge anybody to find an example across the state that’s more transparent than us. Yes, we have meetings in executive session because you don’t negotiate in public. There are things, to get to an agreement, that you have to keep confidential. I think any business person would understand that,” Sikora said, reiterating Bloom’s talking points before adding, “That transparency door should swing both ways.”
Commission President Ed Hawkins said he did not wish to comment on the matter until the Sierra Club came back with the requested data, which Kotcon said he would do next week.
