Peabody to Study 5 W.Ky. Sites: Fletcher Campaign Flier Touts Event’s Jobs Angle

By Jack Brammer, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Oct. 30–LOUISVILLE — “Governor Fletcher Brings Hundreds of New Jobs to Kentucky” read the headline on the news release of Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s re-election campaign yesterday after Fletcher announced that Western Kentucky is under consideration for a $3 billion plant to convert coal into gas.

But Rick Bowen, vice president of generation and Btu conversion for the St. Louis-based Peabody Energy that wants to build the plant, said the project is not a done deal.

And state House Democratic leaders grumbled that they were left out of the governor’s news conference in front of the J.B. Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville that featured Bowen and several prominent Republicans. They included U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, state Senate President David Williams and Cabinet Secretary Robbie Rudolph, who is running for lieutenant governor as Fletcher’s running mate.

House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said the event “appeared to be a campaign stop” for Fletcher, who is trailing Democratic challenger Steve Beshear 15 to 20 percentage points in several media polls in the last week before the Nov. 6 election. Fletcher’s campaign bus was at the site.

Fletcher said House Democratic leaders had been invited to the news conference and claimed he was “disappointed” that none of them had showed up.

But Richards and House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, a Democrat from Flatwoods who sponsored the bill this year that led to incentives for energy companies like Peabody, said they had not received any invitation.

Adkins said he did not learn of the news conference until Peabody’s Bowen called him about an hour or two after it was over and asked him why he hadn’t been there.

“I told him I didn’t know anything about it,” Adkins said. “I’m glad about the news but I think the way the governor handled it gives every appearance that it had to do with politics. No one contacted me or my staff.”

Fletcher’s press secretary, Jodi Whitaker, said she personally called Adkins’ office early yesterday morning and left a message to call her back. She also said she left a voice-mail message with House Natural Resources Environment Chairman Jim Gooch, D-Providence, and talked directly to Senate President Williams.

Gooch could not be immediately reached for comment. The governor’s office sent out an e-mail to reporters about the news conference at 2:48 p.m. Friday but did not say it was about Peabody. It was billed as a “press conference to make a major economic development announcement.”

Whitaker said the governor, when told about Speaker Richards’ comments, asked, “Is this the same Jody Richards who adjourned the House without taking up the bill?”

The governor called two special legislative sessions this year to consider the energy bill. The Democratic-controlled House adjourned the first session early without taking up the bill, saying the governor had loaded down the session with too many issues and that they could wait until the 2008 regular session to address them.

After that first failed session, Richards called for a meeting with Peabody officials in Louisville. It led to the second special session and passage of the energy bill.

Fletcher said yesterday the announcement “marks a historic day in Kentucky’s path toward energy security.”

Peabody and ConocoPhillips are looking at five counties in Western Kentucky — Henderson, Union, Ohio, Webster and Muhlenberg — to be the possible site of a plant that would employ 400 to 500 people in the plant and adjacent coal mine and use about 2.5 million tons of coal per year, Bowen said.

But first, he said, a $60 million feasibility study has to be completed.

Asked how certain it is that the plant will be built in Kentucky, Fletcher said Kentucky is the only site under consideration now and that he does not think Peabody, the world’s largest private-sector coal company with sales last year of 248 million tons of coal and $5.3 billion in revenue, would take “this first step” if it were not seriously interested in Kentucky.

“We wouldn’t spend the money if we didn’t feel like it was going to eventually be a reality,” Bowen said. “But you never know until all the engineering work is done and the capital costs are in and they’re totaled up. We want to make sure it’s economical.”

Illinois and Indiana also had been considered for the proposed plant. Peabody narrowed the study to Kentucky after the state Economic Development Finance Authority last week agreed to provide $250 million in tax incentives to Kentucky Syngas LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Peabody Energy.

The state estimates about 1,200 construction jobs worth about $229 million will be created to build the plant.

Fletcher’s campaign news release about the announcement said all these jobs “were made possible by an energy bill Steve Beshear opposed earlier this summer.”

Fletcher’s campaign press secretary, Jason Keller, said, “Steve Beshear orchestrated a walk-out on the energy bill, hosted a party for the legislators who complied with his wishes, then proceeded to tell Kentuckians that we can be smarter with our economic development. The achievement that Gov. Fletcher has made in attracting these jobs and the success of the energy legislation demonstrate that Beshear cannot be trusted with economic development in the commonwealth.”

Vicki Glass, Beshear’s campaign press secretary, called the information in the Fletcher campaign release “misleading.”

“Steve Beshear supported the energy bill,” she said. “What he opposed was the lack of leadership on the part of Gov. Fletcher, who took the extraordinary measure of calling a special session in the absence of agreement with the legislature on the agenda. The energy bill was included among more than 60 other items that were not discussed with legislative leadership. That led to the walk-out by House leadership. The governor knows that and is only trying to pass the buck by blaming Beshear.”

Fletcher was asked at the news conference if the timing of his announcement was related to the election.

He said it could have been announced earlier if the House had addressed the issue earlier and then said it couldn’t hurt.

Reach Jack Brammer at (859) 231-1302 or (502) 227-4390.

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