Jun. 8--A proposal designed to lure an alternative fuels plant to Kentucky will be pitched to members of a legislative energy subcommittee during its meeting next week at the TVA Paradise power plant in Muhlenberg County.

The meeting is one of three planned during the next two weeks as Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Senate President David Williams push for a special session of the legislature they say is needed to approve an incentives package for the unnamed company. Williams, a Burkesville Republican, announced the meetings in a letter sent Wednesday to House Speaker Jody Richards, who with other members of the legislature has questioned the need for a special session this year. "A special session addressing alternative fuel incentives will allow the General Assembly to create the tools necessary to attract one, or more, of these plants to Kentucky," Williams said in the letter.

Richards, a Bowling Green Democrat, said during an interview Thursday that there are currently too many unknowns about the company and the project for him to support calling a special session to consider an incentives package. "We don't know the nature of this company, and we just don't know those answers," Richards said. Williams plans to use an incentives package being developed by the governor's office and the Governor's Office of Energy Policy for the company as a basis for legislation that will be presented at next Friday's meeting at the Drakesboro power plant. The plan also will be presented June 18 at the Pike County Coal Summit and at the June 21 meeting of the interim Appropriations and Revenue Committee in northern Kentucky.

Williams said in the letter that all members of the legislature and coal county officials will receive a draft of the legislation as soon as it is ready. Fletcher spokeswoman Jodi Whitaker said the incentives package is still being developed and declined to elaborate on the company, what kind of plant it would build or where it might be located. "We're working through the process," Whitaker said. "We think it's imperative to get this done and have a (special) session." Rep. Brent Yonts, a Greenville Democrat and member of the legislative Subcommittee on Energy, said he has received information that the plant could produce coal-based fuel and would likely be located in western Kentucky, but he declined to elaborate fur her.

Yonts says he believes he needs a stronger argument for the urgency of a special session before he backs such a move, which he said would cost about $60,000 for each day legislators are in Frankfort. A less expensive option could be for governor and House and Senate leadership to offer a letter of commitment to the company that would ensure an acceptable incentives package is passed when the legislature convenes for its regular 60-day session in Jan ary. "If they will do that, I think that's a cheaper alternative for the state," Yonts said. House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, a Sandy Hook Democrat, said state leaders have issued letters of commitment in the past when trying to secure a United Parcel Services plant and a Hyundai plant.

However, Adkins said a specific incentives package might not have been needed if his House Bill 5, an alternative fuels incentives bill, had been passed this spring. Adkins and Richards both noted that Williams shut down the negotiations of a conference committee on the bill on the last day of this year's session. "We were making great progress in the conference committee," Adkins said. "I'm glad to see (Williams) thinks this is important now because two months ago ... the bill was killed in the conference committee." Adkins has been working with the Legislative Research Commission to develop a new version of House Bill 5 that could be offered as an alternative if a special session is called.

"I believe that my bill had the incentives that this company would have needed or does need," Adkins said. "It's a shame the bill's not already law." If a special session is called, House and Senate leaders need to be in agreement about what issues will be addressed and how they should be addressed to decrease the amount of time legislators are in Frankfort, Richards said. "The House is just as important as the Senate in this issue," Richards said. "If it looks like the Senate's just trying to get their way on the issue and doesn't include the House, it doesn't bode well for a special session.