A federal lawsuit by the Sierra Club against the West Virginia Public Service Commission likely won’t go to trial for another year.
The Sierra Club sued the PSC in August over its 2021 directive that Appalachian Power’s coal plants in West Virginia operate at an average of 69 percent capacity.
A document filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia shows that attorneys for the PSC’s commissioners intend to seek a motion to dismiss the case.
Should the case proceed, a trial will not take place until November 2025, the document shows.
The Sierra Club alleges that the commission’s directive raised rates for Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power customers, increasing 20 percent since the PSC issued the directive.
The company’s plants operate no more than half the time and typically well below that. Company officials have told the PSC that the plants became oversupplied with coal in recent months and had to operate them at a loss to safely manage their coal inventory.
The Sierra Club’s lawsuit challenges the PSC’s efforts to protect the dominance of coal in the state’s energy portfolio. West Virginia gets 89 percent of its electricity from coal, more than any other state.
An executive from American Electric Power, Appalachian Power’s parent, told Virginia regulators in August that the company is at least considering a conversion of its Mountaineer and John Amos plants in West Virginia from coal to gas.
The plants supply power to customers in both states. Virginia, unlike West Virginia, has pivoted sharply from coal to gas.