Thomas A. Blanton, a Hattiesburg oil man who took on Mississippi Power Company and the Mississippi Public Service Commission, will speak at the Temple Theatre ballroom next Tuesday night about the Kemper County power plant.

    The town hall is set to begin at 7 p.m. Blanton said he will make about 15-minute presentation that will include a short film and then will answer questions from the audience. The meeting is sponsored by the Lauderdale County Citizens For Responsible Governance.

    Last month, the Supreme Court threw out a Mississippi Power rate increase to help pay for construction of the plant and ordered the power company to return $257 million to ratepayers.

    After the Supreme Court’s ruling, Mississippi Power President and CEO Ed Holland said if the high court’s ruling stands, the company will have to borrow the money to complete construction at the plant and would seek a rate increase between 35 percent and 40 percent to pay the additional court.    

    Blanton has argued that Mississippi ratepayers are footing the bill of what he called Mississippi Power’s great “science project.”

    Both Mississippi Power and the state Public Service Commission have asked the court to reconsider its ruling.

    “Because the Court action will result in higher rates and bills to customers, Mississippi Power is asking the Court to reconsider its decision,” Holland wrote in a column published in The Meridian Star. “The company is committed to ensuring our customers are not hurt by this decision and that we do what is in their best interest.”

    Blanton took issue with the Power Company’s statements following the Supreme Court ruling.

    “First, no power company can raise its own rates, that’s for the Public Service Commission,” Blanton said. “Secondly, they haven’t proved the facility can generate any power because it hasn’t generated any power.

    “This plant was suppose to be up and running two and a half years ago. It’s 2015, and it’s not up and running. It is not running as it was advertised. They put $2.4 billion in this thing and only did about 10 percent of the engineering required. Now, it’s cost three times as much and they’re still two and a half years behind.”

    Blanton also took issue with the PSC.

    “The PSC has not acted in the public’s interests, especially when it came to Kemper’s cost over runs,” Blanton maintains. “Both the PSC and Mississippi Power have operated this under a shroud of secrecy.”

    Mississippi Power officials have refuted Blanton’s assertions.

    The construction cost for the Kemper power plant is now more than $6 billion.

    Jeff Shepard, a public relations director for Mississippi Power issued the following statement on the progress at the plant.

    “With construction virtually complete, workers are now focusing on the start-up phase of the project, as well as on one of the plant’s most significant milestones to date – the first fire of the gasifier in a few weeks,” according to the statement. “The combined cycle portion of the plant – that part that generates electric power for distribution – was placed in service in August 2014 and is producing power for the benefit of our customers using natural gas as part of the startup process. When company brings the remainder of the project in service in the first half of 2016, the facility will generate power using abundant lignite coal, sourced from the mine adjacent to the plant.”