[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 213 (Thursday, November 5, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57297-57298]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-26693]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Impact 
Statement for the Kemper County IGCC Project, Kemper County, MS

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of availability and public hearing.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces the availability 
of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Kemper County IGCC 
Project (DOE/EIS-0409D) for public review and comment, as well as the 
date, location, and time for a public hearing. The U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers (USACE) is participating as a cooperating agency in the 
preparation of this document. The draft environmental impact statement 
(EIS) analyzes the potential environmental impacts associated with the 
construction and operation of a project proposed by Southern Company, 
through its affiliate Mississippi Power Company (Mississippi Power), 
which was selected by DOE to receive financial assistance under the 
Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) program. In addition, DOE may issue 
a loan guarantee to the project pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 
2005 (EPAct05). The loan guarantee would apply to the planning, design, 
permitting, equipment procurement, construction, and startup of the 
power plant.
    DOE prepared this draft EIS in accordance with the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the 
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations that implement the 
procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), and the DOE 
procedures implementing NEPA (10 CFR part 1021).

DATES: DOE invites the public to comment on the Draft EIS during the 
public comment period, which ends December 21, 2009. DOE will consider 
all comments postmarked or received during the public comment period in 
preparing the Final EIS, and will consider late comments to the extent 
practicable.
    DOE will hold a public hearing on December 1, 2009, at Kemper 
County High School, 429 Philadelphia Road, DeKalb, Mississippi 
beginning at 7 p.m. An informational session will be held at the same 
location from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., preceding the public hearing on the 
same day. Requests to speak at the public hearing can be made by 
calling or writing the EIS Document Manager (see ADDRESSES). Requests 
to speak not submitted prior to the hearing will be accepted in the 
order in which they are received during the hearing. Speakers are 
encouraged to provide a written version of their oral comments for the 
record. Each speaker will be allowed five minutes to present comments 
unless more time is requested and available. Comments will be recorded 
by a court reporter and will become part of the public hearing record. 
Oral and written comments will be given equal consideration.
    The public hearing will be accessible to people with disabilities. 
Any individual with a disability requiring special assistance, such as 
a sign language interpreter or a translator, should contact Mr. Richard 
A. Hargis, Jr., NEPA Document Manager, (see ADDRESSES) at least 48 
hours before the meeting so that arrangements can be made.

ADDRESSES: Requests for information about this Draft EIS or to receive 
a copy of it should be directed to: Richard A. Hargis, Jr., NEPA 
Document Manager, U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology 
Laboratory, M/S 922-M217, P.O. Box 10940, Pittsburgh, PA 15236. 
Additional information about the Draft EIS may also be requested by 
electronic mail: [email protected] or by telephone at (412) 386-
6065, or toll free at: (888) 322-7436, x6065.
    The Draft EIS will be available at http://www.gc.energy.gov/NEPA/. 
Copies of the Draft EIS are also available for review at the locations 
listed in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this Notice. Written 
comments on the Draft EIS can be mailed to Richard A. Hargis, Jr., NEPA 
Document Manager, at the address noted above. Written comments may also 
be submitted by fax to: (412) 386-4604, or submitted electronically to: 
[email protected]. Oral comments on the Draft EIS will be 
accepted only during the public hearing scheduled for the date and 
location provided in the DATES section of this Notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: For further information on the proposed 
project or the draft EIS, please contact Mr. Richard A. Hargis, Jr., 
(see ADDRESSES). For general information regarding the DOE NEPA 
process, please contact: Ms. Carol M. Borgstrom, Director, Office of 
NEPA Policy and Compliance (GC-54), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585-0103; telephone: 202-
586-4600; fax: 202-586-7031; or leave a message at: (800) 472-2756.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The proposed project would demonstrate 
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology using lignite 
coal as a feedstock for a new electricity generating plant at a site in 
Kemper County, Mississippi. The facilities would convert lignite coal, 
produced at a new mine to be developed near the power plant site by 
North American Coal Company, into synthesis gas (syngas) for generating 
a nominal 582 megawatts of electricity while reducing sulfur dioxide, 
oxides of nitrogen, mercury, and particulate emissions as compared to 
conventional lignite-fired power plants. The project would also be 
designed to capture up to 67 percent of the carbon dioxide 
(CO2) that would otherwise be emitted when firing syngas. 
The captured CO2 would be transported by pipeline for 
beneficial use and geologic storage in existing enhanced oil recovery 
(EOR) operations in Mississippi.
    The EIS will inform DOE's decisions on whether to provide a total 
of $294 million in cost-shared funding (15 percent or less of the total 
project cost, which is currently projected to be greater than $2 
billion) for the proposed project under the CCPI program. It will also 
inform DOE's decision on whether to issue a loan guarantee to the 
project pursuant to EPAct05. The USACE will evaluate the potential 
environmental impacts before deciding whether to issue permits under 
the Clean Water Act (CWA) for stream and wetland disturbances that 
would result from the proposed mine, power plant, electrical 
transmission lines, and pipelines.
    The EIS evaluates the potential impacts of the proposed project, 
connected actions, and reasonable alternatives. Because the proposed 
project may affect floodplains and wetlands, the Draft EIS includes an 
assessment of impacts to floodplains and wetlands in accordance with 
DOE regulations for Compliance with Floodplains and Wetlands

[[Page 57298]]

Environmental Review Requirements (10 CFR part 1022).
    DOE analyzed two main alternatives in the Draft EIS--the Proposed 
Action (with or without additional mitigation) and the No Action 
Alternative. Under the Proposed Action, DOE would provide a total of 
$294 million in cost-shared funding under the CCPI program to the 
proposed project. DOE has already provided a portion of the total 
funding ($24.4 million) to Southern Company for DOE's share of the 
preliminary design and project definition. In addition, DOE may issue a 
loan guarantee pursuant to section 1703 of the Energy Policy Act of 
2005 to the project.
    Under the No Action Alternative, DOE would not provide continued 
funding under the CCPI Program or issue a loan guarantee to the 
project. In the absence of DOE funding, Mississippi Power could pursue 
two options. First, the facility and supporting infrastructure could be 
built as proposed without DOE funding or a loan guarantee. The 
connected actions would remain unchanged. The potential environmental 
impacts of this option would be essentially the same as the proposed 
action. Second, Mississippi Power could choose to cancel the IGCC 
project, and none of the connected actions would likely be built. This 
option would not contribute to the goal of the CCPI program, which is 
to accelerate commercial deployment of advanced coal technologies that 
provide the United States with clean, reliable, and affordable energy. 
Similarly, the No Action Alternative would not contribute to the loan 
guarantee program's goal of supporting energy projects that ``avoid, 
reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of 
greenhouse gases; and employ new or significantly improved 
technologies.'' For purposes of this Draft EIS, DOE assumes that the 
project would not be built under the No Action Alternative.
    DOE has developed an overall strategy for compliance with NEPA for 
the CCPI program consistent with CEQ regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 
through 1508) and DOE regulations (10 CFR part 1021). This strategy has 
two principal elements. The first element involved an open solicitation 
and competitive selection process to obtain a set of projects that best 
meets program needs. The applications that meet the mandatory 
eligibility requirements constitute the range of reasonable 
alternatives available to DOE to meet the program's purpose and needs. 
Following reviews by technical, environmental, and financial panels and 
a comprehensive assessment by a merit review board, DOE officials 
selected those projects that they concluded best met the program's 
purposes and needs. By broadly soliciting proposals to meet the 
programmatic purposes and needs for DOE action and by evaluating the 
potential environmental impacts associated with each proposal before 
selecting projects that would go forward to the second step in the NEPA 
process, DOE considered a reasonable range of alternatives for 
implementing CCPI. The second step in the NEPA process consists of 
preparing more detailed NEPA analyses for each selected project. For 
this project, DOE determined that providing financial assistance or a 
loan guarantee (or both) to the proposed project would constitute a 
major federal action that may significantly affect the quality of the 
human environment. Therefore, DOE has prepared this EIS to assess the 
potential impacts on the human environment of the proposed action and 
reasonable alternatives.
    Alternatives considered by Mississippi Power in developing the 
proposed project are presented in the EIS, including alternative 
sources of water supply, alternative routes for linear facilities (a 
natural gas pipeline, a reclaimed water supply pipeline, a 
CO2 pipeline, and new and upgraded transmission lines), and 
alternative levels of CO2 capture.
    The draft EIS analyzes the environmental consequences that may 
result from the proposed action, with or without additional mitigation, 
and the no action alternative. The environmental consequences of 
connected actions are also analyzed, including: Development and 
operation of the adjacent lignite mine and construction and operation 
of linear facilities. Potential impacts identified during the scoping 
process and analyzed in the draft EIS relate to the following: 
Atmospheric resources, including climate change and options for 
CO2 capture, transport, and beneficial use and geologic 
storage; groundwater and surface water resources, including impacts on 
Lake Okatibbee operations; infrastructure and land use; solid wastes; 
visual impacts; floodplains; wetlands and streams; ecological 
resources; safety and health; construction-related impacts; community 
impacts; cultural and archaeological resources; and cumulative impacts.
    Copies of the draft EIS have been distributed to Members of 
Congress; Native American tribal governments; Federal, state, and local 
officials; and agencies, organizations, and individuals who may be 
interested or affected. The draft EIS will be available on the Internet 
at http://www.gc.doe.gov/nepa/ nepa/. Copies of the draft EIS are available 
for public review at the following locations: DeKalb Public Library, 
Bell St. and Main St., DeKalb, Mississippi; Meridian-Lauderdale County 
Public Library, 2517 Seventh St., Meridian, Mississippi; Quitman Public 
Library, 116 Water St., Quitman, Mississippi; Bay Springs Municipal 
Library, 815 S. Court St., Bay Springs, Mississippi. Additional copies 
also can be requested (see ADDRESSES).

    Dated: October 30, 2009.
Carl O. Bauer,
Director, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Office of Fossil 
Energy.
[FR Doc. E9-26693 Filed 11-4-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P