Senator Manchin get the energy deal he wanted — guaranteed premium power

According to the Washington Post, Senator Joe Manchin “offered some of his strongest comments to date in support of the climate provisions in Democrats’ social spending bill, providing a measure of relief for climate advocates.” Senator Manchin was previously responsible for removing the Clean Electricity Performance Program from the Build Back Better Act, then opposing passage of the rest of the bill.

It is no secret that Senator Manchin earns hundreds of thousands of dollars per year selling waste coal to burn for electricity. The Grant Town Power Plant has been seeking to negotiate a buyout its contract to sell power to Monongahela Power. One reason a buy-out is attractive is because selling power to utilities is subject to significant government oversight and regulation. If a buy-out enabled Grant Town to continue to generate electricity but to sell it to a customer on-site, much of the regulation could be avoided.

Enter cryptocurrency.

The owner of Grant Town Power Plant proposed a $200 million buy-out of its above-market priced power supply contract to convert the plant into a crypto mining operation. This buyout would enable the plant to continue operations — and buying waste coal from Senator Manchin’s company.

However, on December 29, the West Virginia Public Service Commission rejected Grant Town’s proposal to force buy-out negotiations. The Commission noted that that Monongahela Power does not have sufficient capacity to meet its market obligations. The Commission also noted that it is “mindful of the argument set forth by the owners of Grant Town that the environmental and financial benefits accruing to the State’s economy are benefits that must be considered as offsets to some relatively small increased purchased power costs to current and future ratepayers.”

In other words, even though buying power from Grant Town increases costs to customers compared to other options available in the market, the Public Service Commission is concerned that Monongahela Power may have difficulty finding new power supply and that the jobs and tax revenues provided by Grant Power may not easily be replaced.

So, Grant Town — and by extension Senator Manchin — will continue to supply premium-priced power.