KBR to Engineer Kemper Plant?

Adam Lynch

UAW member Brown Miller, of Hattiesburg, opposes new coal plant in Kemper County due to increased electricity rates and the potential loss of jobs at power plants on the coast.

by Adam Lynch
October 7, 2009

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth was electrocuted in his shower stall in Iraq in January 2008. Army documents showed that KBR Engineering and Construction had inspected the building and found serious electrical problems 11 months before Maseth's death. However, KBR ignored the faulty wiring because the company contract did not cover "fixing potential hazards."

Sgt. Maseth's family sued KBR this year. The case is ongoing, with a U.S. Army investigator recommending that Maseth's official cause of death should be changed from "accidental" to "negligent homicide."

Texas-based KBR, a favorite company of the George W. Bush administration for no-bid contracts, had a $200 million contract to provide housing for soldiers in Iraq. It could soon get a Mississippi Power contract to engineer a controversial $2.4 billion lignite-burning plant in Kemper County, if public hearings this week in Jackson tilt their direction.

This possibility has advocates for Mississippi workers concerned over safety and jobs. "They don't use professional people to put their projects in. They'll bring undocumented workers from all over the world to come in and take the jobs," said Building and Construction Trade Union President David Newell.

"Our union spends millions of dollars a year on training Mississippians the correct way to do our craft. Mississippians buy our homes here; we buy gas here and automobiles here. Mississippians want the opportunity to work here, not in Chicago or somewhere up north."

Newell added that his union only allows American citizens into its ranks, and warned that Mississippi Power has made no assurance that it plans to allow union workers: "We've talked to Mississippi Power a couple of times and they give you that warm, fuzzy feeling and then send you on your way," he said.

Mississippi Power could not be reached immediately for comment.

Brown Miller of Hattiesburg, a retired Union of Auto Workers employee, said he was concerned by the admission of Mississippi Power during Monday's Public Service Commission hearing that Mississippi Power would be shutting down two power plants near the Coast after the Kemper plant is complete.

"Those are jobs they're talking about taking away," Miller said.

Mississippi Power spokeswoman Cindy Duvall said at the hearing that the company expects some job gains with the new plant.

About 40 protesters met at the Woolfolk Building Monday to urge the PSC to not approve the new plant, which Mississippi Power proposed in 2006. The PSC must approve the construction before the state-regulated company can throw the first shovel of dirt.

Anthony Topazi, president and CEO of Mississippi Power, told the commission that the state needs to build the plant, which will capture roughly half its carbon emissions for use by the oil industry, to handle tighter federal regulation on coal-burning plants.

"We can't build any additional coal plants for a lot of reasons. We don't have access to nuclear energy, for a lot of reasons. The only options we have are more gas and lignite," Topazi said.

He also warned that the state needs to expand its fuel options away from natural gas, which Topazi describes as an economically volatile energy source.

The Public Service Commission is holding hearings on the state's need for the plant all week and will conclude the hearings Friday afternoon with a hearing dedicated to public commentary.