A lawsuit’s been filed in Georgia by a company that claims it was mislead by Mississippi Power Company into building a $100 million pipeline. The Associated Press says Treetop Midstream Services, an affiliate of an oil company that planned to pump carbon dioxide underground to force out oil sued Atlanta-based Southern Co. and its Mississippi Power subsidiary after the utility ended its contract to buy carbon dioxide in June.
Treetop maintains Mississippi Power lied and hid delays in construction of the Kemper county plant in Mississippi, leaving the county with “a pipeline to nowhere.” Treetop not only wants its money back spent on the pipeline but punitive damages too, according to the Associated Press.
The $6.7 billion Kemper plant is more than two years behind schedule and is now burning natural gas to generate electricity. However, it is designed to burn lignite coal, extracting climate-warming carbon dioxide instead of emitting it into the air. But Mississippi Power needs a place to bury the carbon dioxide. It planned to sell the carbon dioxide to Tellus Energy and Denbury Resources, companies that planned to flood depleted oil fields to force out more oil.
