According to a 2008 state regulation, PSC has the right to endorse rate hikes prior to firms constructing power production stations. As per the old regulation, a company had to wait till a power station became operation prior to requesting for rate hikes to reclaim building costs.

The attorney general was worried that Mississippi Power would mix the application or certificate for the power station with the rate hike plea.

Sondra McLemore, a special assistant attorney general, said Mississippi Power “should not request that this commission make one all-encompassing decision as to the CCN (certificate) and to a rate treatment in such a broad and extremely important matter, particular without giving all of the information required.”

McLemore added that it is not time to tackle any rate hike prior to the PSC’s verdict concerning the status of the project.

Ben Stone, Mississippi Power’s chief counsel, reacted by stating that the firm had drafted a comprehensive filing for the PSC and will collaborate with regulators to give any required information. Stone emphasized the significance of progressing forward rapidly.

Mississippi Power has obtained from the US Department of Energy a $270 million grant and under the National Energy Policy Act of 2005, a $133 million in investment tax credits.

Apart from the 260 permanent jobs, Mississippi Power stated that 1,000 jobs will be created at the time of peak construction.

The power plant would be a 582 MW integrated gasification combined cycle that locally transforms brown coal or mined lignite into a gas to produce lower-emission power. Yet, the clean coal technology is more expensive and new.

Two independent power producers, Magnolia Energy and Entegra Power Group, and the Sierra Club have protested the necessity for the lignite clean coal power station. All three had attorneys at the hearing on May 5, 2009. The PSC did not announce any decision.

As Mississippi Power is the first to possibly utilize the new regulation for a rate hike, the PSC consented additional money might be required for consultants prior to its ruling.