JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A company that had planned to buy carbon dioxide from Mississippi Power Co.’s Kemper County power plant has sued, alleging the utility misled it into building a $100 million pipeline.
Treetop Midstream Services, an affiliate of an oil company that planned to pump carbon dioxide underground to force out oil, sued June 9 in the Atlanta suburb of Gwinnett County, Georgia. Treetop sued Atlanta-based Southern Co. and its Mississippi Power subsidiary after the utility terminated Treetop’s contract to buy carbon dioxide on June 3.
Treetop said Mississippi Power lied and concealed delays in Kemper construction. Under terms of its contract, Treetop said it was required to finish a pipeline nine months before Kemper started operating and prepare Mississippi oil fields belonging to Tellus Energy to receive the gas.
“After intentionally misrepresenting and concealing the start date for the facility and forcing Treetop to unnecessarily spend nearly $100 million on a pipeline and other equipment, the Southern Co. defendants have now left Treetop with a pipeline to nowhere that never would have been built but for the fraudulent conduct of the Southern Co. defendants,” the suit states.
Treetop wants its money back, plus interest and punitive damages.