WASHINGTON -- Eastern Kentucky coal magnate Larry Addington has contributed more than $800,000 to political groups and candidates over the past three years giving more money to the Republican Party last year than such corporate giants as Exxon Mobil Corp.
Most of that money $500,000 was given to the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 1998 to 2000, while U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Louisville was its chairman.
Now, McConnell is sponsoring legislation that could provide tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks for a Lexington power company with ties to the Addington family as well as valuable exemptions from environmental protection rules.
Specifically, environmentalists fear that legislation proposed by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and co-sponsored by McConnell and others, would exempt new or refurbished power plants from planned federal restrictions on emissions of mercury and other harmful chemicals.
McConnell said in an interview last week that Addington's donations came with no strings attached.
``Larry Addington is a generous supporter of the Senatorial Committee, which we were grateful for,'' McConnell said. ``He has helped us to compete. He has never asked for anything.''
But Larry Makinson, a senior fellow with the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C., watchdog group, says Addington's donations raise questions.
``Some people give money because they want to be invited to the White House; maybe they want to be the next ambassador to Luxembourg. But this contribution doesn't look like it's in that category,'' Makinson said. ``My suspicion is that they're looking for something beyond an ambassadorship here.''
Addington and a spokesman did not respond to repeated telephone messages over the past week seeking comment for this story.
Congress is preparing to consider major energy legislation this session including a sweeping energy bill introduced this week that incorporates several of the Byrd-McConnell proposals as well as calling for oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge.
Issue involves coal
The legislation that McConnell has co-sponsored, Senate Bill 60, is ``a coal company's dream piece of legislation,'' said David Hawkins, air and energy program director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington, D.C., environmental group. ``It's a combination of a taxpayer rip-off and an assault on the Clean Air Act.''
The legislation could provide more than $1 billion in tax breaks. It would also offer plants that use state-of-the-art technology to burn coal a 10-year exemption from stricter environmental regulations. Among them: restrictions on mercury emissions, which the Environmental Protection Agency plans to issue by December 2004.
The bill is ``an immunity ticket'' for polluters, Hawkins said. ``It's remarkable that this piece of legislation would be introduced by a U.S. senator let alone be sponsored by 15 of them.''
Mercury emissions would be of particular concern at an Eastern Kentucky power plant proposed by EnviroPower LLC, a Lexington-based company with close ties to Larry Addington's AEI Resources Inc.
EnviroPower, which is chaired by Addington's brother Bruce, has proposed building at least four new coal-fired power plants in Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana.
The $600 million EnviroPower plant in Kentucky, which would be located next to an AEI Resources mine in Knott County, would burn low-grade coal and coal waste also known as ``gob.'' According to documents filed with Kentucky state regulators, the plant would release up to 3,620 pounds of mercury into the air each year.
That's more than any other power plant in the United States and more than the combined mercury emissions at every power plant in New York and New Jersey, according to the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based non-profit environmental research group.
Airborne mercury eventually mixes with rain and falls back to earth. It can poison lakes and rivers one teaspoonful in a 20-acre lake is considered harmful, said John Coequyt, one of the authors of a study on mercury emissions for the Environmental Working Group.
Mercury can also cause irreparable harm to the human nervous system, Coequyt said; it poses the greatest threat to fetuses and small children.
Coal-fired plants are the biggest man-made source of mercury emissions in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Nationwide, coal-fired plants released 43 tons of mercury in 1999, the EPA estimates. Last year, EnviroPower's subsidiary, Kentucky Mountain Power, asked for permission to release up to 3,620 pounds of mercury annually at its Kentucky plant.
EnviroPower vice president John Tate said 3,620 pounds is the maximum amount of mercury the plant would release each year. He said the actual amount released would probably be smaller.
``You'll find that to be a very clean-burning plant,'' he added.
The plant would be the first new coal-fired power plant in Kentucky in a decade. But before construction could begin, Kentucky Mountain Power must get construction permits from the state Division of Air Quality and must be in compliance with the federal Clean Air Act. The EPA and the public are allowed to comment before the permits are issued.
Hazard Mayor William Gorman has endorsed the plant, which would create 50 to 70 jobs. Gov. Paul Patton was on hand when the project was announced.
Moreover, President Bush, whose campaign received a $1,000 contribution from Larry Addington, has indicated his support for clean coal technologies.
AEI Resources and EnviiroPower have both hired Washington, D.C., lobbyist Daniel Scherder. EnviroPower is lobbying on ``tax incentives, permit approvals, and Clean Air Act issues,'' according to lobbying registration forms.
AEI Resources is lobbying Congress and other federal agencies on a variety of issues, including mountaintop mining, the Clean Air Act, global warming, utility restructuring, taxes and black lung.
Donating since 1979
In 1996, Addington gave $15,000 to political parties and federal candidates. By 1998, that amount had ballooned to $215,000. His record year was 2000: $470,000. These figures don't include Addington's donations to candidates for state and local offices.
A recent article in Mother Jones magazine listed Addington as one of the 25 biggest individual contributors to the Republican Party. But Addington also gave $25,000 to the Democratic National Committee during the party's national convention in Los Angeles.
Much of the money was given at about the same time that auditors were raising questions about the ability of AEI Resources to stay in business. The company released its 1999 financial statements in June 2000, which included the auditors' concerns. Moody's Investors Service Inc. lowered the coal company's bond ratings the next month.
The 1999 financial statements showed long-term debts of nearly $1.3 billion and net losses of nearly $200 million.
AEI Resources, which is owned by the Addington family, bills itself as the country's fourth-largest steam coal producer as measured by revenues. AEI Resources Holdings Inc. is also the 77th-biggest federal contractor in the nation; it sold $257 million worth of coal to the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1999.
In Eastern Kentucky, some environmentalists are hoping the company's size and influence doesn't give EnviroPower an unfair advantage in siting the power plant.
Patty Wallace, a member of the state Environmental Quality Commission from Louisa, said it would be hard to attract tourists to Eastern Kentucky if the air and water were damaged.
``Those few jobs don't last long,'' she said, ``but the damage lasts forever.''
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