Alabama Power wants to build a lake on top of a mountain. But local residents are fighting back.
“I think this project is barbaric and unethical to take land and homes from human beings in 2023,” said Kurt Nassif, who runs a tire business in Steele, which sits about 13 miles southwest of Gadsden.Dennis Pillion “Though Alabama Power is taking initial steps in the federal licensing process for Chandler Mountain, no decision has been made to develop and construct the project,” the company said. “It may be years before the company will know whether acquiring additional property at Chandler Mountain will be necessary.”
Alabama Power has filed preliminary application documents with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a, but approval and licensing for the project could take up to a decade before construction can begin. “We’re very concerned about this proposal that Alabama Power has put forward,” said Jack West, policy director for the Alabama Rivers Alliance.
“Storage enables greater integration of additional renewables into the grid because it can be used to maintain reliable service when intermittent renewable generation is not available.”“Alabama Power’s Chandler Mountain project is simply a massive land and cash grab for its Wall Street investors,” said Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama.
“No storage option is actually clean when charged with expensive and dirty coal and gas like is currently being proposed,” Tait said.