Yes, the Kemper Power Plant has Critics. Like Those Who Called the Apollo Program “Nuts.”

Back in the 1960s, some critics — some of whom were quite prominent— had some tough words for the Apollo Program to put people on the moon:

– “Moondoggle” – Sociologist Amitai Etizioni

– “Nuts” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

It’s good the naysayers did not prevail.  Rutgers University found that for the $25 Billion that was spent on the Space Program’s research, $181 Billion was gained by the American Economy!

Today, a small group of similarly minded “thinkers” are trying to stop progress by preventing innovation at Mississippi’s landmark Kemper Power Plant.

The Kemper Project will lead Mississippi in energy technology the same way the U.S. lead the world in 1969, bringing jobs, millions of dollars to local government and place Mississippi on the map for technology growth.

How is this for a giant step:

The Kemper County power plant will use state-of-the-art electric power plant technology that – simply put – will turn lignite into a cleaner burning gas.

The Kemper plant will be a leader in providing clean, safe power. Because emission controls are built into the plant and closely monitored throughout the coal gasification process, the project will have fewer sulfur dioxide, particulate and mercury emissions than traditional coal technology.

 

After locally mined lignite is gasified, three byproducts, carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, will be removed from the gas stream. The project will capture at least 65 percent of the carbon dioxide produced, with resulting carbon emissions comparable to a similarly sized natural gas plant.

The captured carbon dioxide will be transported along a 61-mile pipeline to Denbury Resources and Treetop Midstream Services. The companies will use the carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery to find oil that was previously unreachable.

Using carbon dioxide from Kemper is expected to increase U.S. oil output by 2 million barrels per year, playing an important role in reducing Mississippi’s and America’s use of foreign oil and keeping oil revenue at home rather than sending it overseas.

The Kemper power plant site will be a zero liquid discharge facility, which means none of the water used to generate electricity will end up in surrounding streams and rivers. Mississippi Power will use the best, least cost and most environmentally friendly option for supplying cooling water to the Kemper County energy facility. Mississippi Power has signed a contractual agreement with the City of Meridian for the majority of its treated effluent supply. In October 2012, the city’s treated effluent began flowing to the plant site. It fills a nearly 90-acre reservoir which holds about 50 days’ worth of water.

We invite you to browse this website to learn about Kemper and join the conversation with us on Facebook or Twitter.