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Municipal Energy Agency of Mississippi Acquires Interest in New Coal Fired Generation Funded With $103 Million Debt Issuance

The Municipal Energy Agency of Mississippi (MEAM), on behalf of six municipal electric member systems, has acquired an undivided ownership interest in the Plum Point Energy Station, a 665-MW facility currently under construction in Osceola, Arkansas. Miller, Balis & O'Neil, P.C. served as special counsel to negotiate a transitional power purchase agreement, the commercial terms of MEAM's equity purchase from the developer, and energy-related issues associated with the issuance of non-taxable debt through a bond issuance underwritten by Banc of America Securities, LLC. The Firm also prepared new sales contracts with MEAM's members.

The MEAM acquisition is part of a continuing trend in public power that is an outgrowth of emerging competitive wholesale markets: entities that were traditionally customers of monopoly power producers are now taking ownership of greater portions of their resource portfolio. MBO is working with other entities throughout the United States on other generation construction and acquisition projects.

The MBO team included, John Adragna, Craig Silverstein, Jim Choukas-Bradley, and Jeff Janicke.