Embattled Cobb EMC Organizes Effort to Spend Over $4 billion on Two Dirty Coal Plants in Rural Georgia
Cobb EMC has faced multiple legal issues over the past few years. In January 2011, Dwight Brown, Cobb EMCs CEO and organizer of the conglomerate of EMCs proposing 2 coal plants in south Georgia, was indicted on 31 counts of theft and racketeering in his role as CEO of Cobb EMC.
Conservative cost estimates for construction of both proposed coal-burning plants is more than $4.6 billion – more than $13,800 in debt for each of the 333,133 EMC members in the Power4Georgians consortium.
Plant Washington Coal Plant
In January 2008, a consortium group organized by Cobb Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) and four other Electric Management Corporations (EMCs), submitted a proposal for a coal-fired power plant to EPD. Specifically, the EMCs seek to construct an 854 MW coal-fired power plant in Sandersville, Georgia, 60 miles east of Macon and close to Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer.
The siting of this coal plant is of particular concern for Georgians. The plant would require millions of gallons of water each day from a river basin that has already experienced low flows and is home to endangered species such as the robust redhorse. The plant would also be located in close proximity to major areas that already have air pollution issues, such as Macon and Atlanta. Financial concerns also surround the decision to construct this plant. The “lead” EMC, Cobb EMC, is already embroiled in litigation questioning the ability of its directors to make sound financial decisions.
Plant Ben Hill Coal Plant
This private consortium of electric cooperatives, headed by Cobb EMC, intends to develop a second 850-megawatt coal-fired plant in Georgia, in addition to Plant Washington. Its second plant would be near Fitzgerald in south-central Ben Hill County. Located on the Ocmulgee River, proposed Plant Ben Hill’s coal-burning technology would require enormous water resources in the production of electricity and would emit dangerous pollutants affecting the immediate area as well as downstream and upwind communities.
Organizations across Georgia are also troubled by the damaging pollution the proposed coal-fired Ben Hill plant would have on air quality, rivers and watersheds, farms, and health. Every day Georgia imports millions of tons of coal to burn. With each load of coal that's brought into our state, Georgians send money out of state to coal producing regions...and in return, our families get the air pollution and water pollution, and our communities lose hundreds of millions of gallons of water due to evaporation from the massive coal plants.
For more information on Cobb EMC, contact the following spokespeople or visit www.takebackcobbemc.com.
Cobb EMC/Allied Energy Services
Dean Alford is the promoter of these two proposed coal-fired power plants and president of Allied Energy Services (AES), a subsidiary of Cobb EMC, which along with two other Cobb EMC subsidiaries, lost $11 million from 2002-2007. For more information see the filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the library. <FERC Filing> FACTS
Cobb EMC Press Contacts
- Joel Mendelson, 404-538-7877, joel@takebackcobbemc.com
- Spokesperson for: EMC Reform and Elections, Economics
- Erin Glynn,
- Neill Herring, 912-447-0667, neillherring@earthlink.net
- Spokesperson for: Energy and Water Politics
- Alexis Chase, 404-588-9978, achase@gipl.org
- Spokesperson for: Faith Community, Energy Efficiency
For more media contacts, visit our media center.