On April 4, 2025, Sierra Club finalized a settlement with the West Virginia Public Service Commission and multiple West Virginia utilities that will protect customers’ pocket books and eliminate an arbitrary requirement to operate polluting coal plants even when uneconomic.
In August 2024, the Sierra Club along with two Appalachian Power customers filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Commission’s 2021 directive to West Virginia utilities to operate their coal plants at a 69% capacity factor–higher than the regional average capacity factor of 42% implemented over the last decade. If the utilities failed to operate their coal plants at the specified 69% capacity factor, they would face financial penalties from the Commission, such as not recovering their spent fuel costs. On the other hand, if they did operate their plants more often, customers would be on the hook to pay millions of dollars in losses while communities near the plants would be exposed to increased pollution. The lawsuit alleged that this directive interferes with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s jurisdiction, violating the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Commission expressly agrees that cost recovery for fuel and purchased power will no longer be tied to whether they operated their coal plants at any particular amount. This will ensure that customers are not paying increased costs to operate an uneconomic coal plant. Sierra Club was represented in this lawsuit by Environmental Law Program Managing Attorney Dori Jaffe and Appalachian Mountain Advocates.