Dive Brief:
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The head of the company developing the Two Elk coal project and carbon capture facility in Wyoming is facing federal fraud charges, according to WyoFile.
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According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Mark Ruffatto, president of North American Power Group, has been charged with a felony for a false claim against the federal government, SNL Energy reports.
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North American Power Group was awarded two grants totaling $10 million under the National Recovery Act to research clean coal technology and build a coal plant, but received only $7.8 million before the Department of Energy suspended the payments. Ruffatto has been ordered to pay back $5.7 million of the grant monies.
Dive Insight:
It is not unusual for a carbon capture project at a power plant to run into problems, but they don’t usually involve fraud.
Mississippi Power’s Kemper integrated gasification combined-cycle project in Mississippi is far over budget and behind schedule, but has not been implicated in outright fraud, though its costs overruns have sparked an inquiry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
North American Power Group’s carbon capture project, however, is a different case. The company won stimulus bill funding for its project, but there is little to show for the millions of dollars.
About 20 years ago, North American Power Group began developing a series of coal plants in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. The head of the company, Mark Ruffatto, was able to attract state funding and bonding authority for the 320-MW project, but beyond an access road, little else was built.
According to WyoFile, Ruffatto did not comment on the criminal charges but issued a statement saying that he intends to repay “in full” the $5.7 million, out of the $7.8 million his company received from the stimulus program, that the Department of Energy has demanded be repaid.
