- Mississippi Free Press

In-Depth

Boondoggle in Kemper County: Powerful Ignored Red Flags of ‘Clean Coal’ Flop

Mississippi Power executives and political backers and lobbyists pushed a huge moonshot of an idea back in 2006 to turn low-grade lignite into “clean coal” to provide electricity from its Kemper County plant in east Mississippi. They also used new legislation to force ratepayers to fund the experiment in advance—funds they later had to repay before imploding part of the facility on Oct. 9, 2021, 15 years after hatching the plan.

Christian Middleton December 16, 2021

Icicles on branch during winter storm - Mississippi Free Press

Solutions

Power Outages Across the Plains: Four Questions Answered About Weather-driven Blackouts

The central U.S. has freezes, heat waves, windstorms, droughts and floods. All of these events stress the electric grid, pipeline networks, roads, rail and waterways. Right now in my state of Texas, ERCOT, a nonprofit corporation that manages the power grid for most of the state, is imposing rolling blackouts because demand for electric heating is very high. So is the Southwest Power Pool, which serves customers in 14 states from North Dakota to Oklahoma.

Michael E. Webber February 18, 2021

In-Depth

From Memphis to Tunica: Concerns About TVA’s Coal Ash Contamination, Remediation Plans

The Tennessee Valley Authority may have a big problem—and one that could soon spill over into Mississippi. The federally owned corporation manages the now-defunct Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis, Tenn., where environmental experts claim ash ponds have been contaminating groundwater said to be locally connected to the Memphis Sand Aquifer since at least 2017. This aquifer is the primary source of drinking water for the city of Memphis and serves other communities across the Mid-South.

Christian Middleton January 26, 2021