By Elena Velkov, media relations coordinator, Fresh Energy

The Associated Press today highlighted another coal plant that has screeched to a halt. Westmoreland Coal Co. has suspended the development of its proposed 500-megawatt Gascoyne power plant project in North Dakota, citing uncertainty about federal carbon regulation. Westmoreland Power Inc. will now return more than $560,000 in state subsidies.

The article quotes Westmoreland Coal Co.’s executive chairman Keith Alessi. “There is much uncertainty in the utility sector on when future carbon regulation will come into effect,” he said. “At this time, [we] cannot predict when a long-term customer [for the plant’s electricity] can be found and the actual plant construction could commence….We cannot guarantee that this will take place…any time soon.”

While this clean energy victory took place in southwestern North Dakota, it coincides with similar developments in Minnesota two weeks ago. Two Minnesota administrative law judges recommended denying permits for transmission lines from the proposed Big Stone II project. They concluded that the relevant utilities did not prove that conservation and renewable energy were not better options, according to the Star Tribune.

In J. Drake Hamilton’s blog post about the administrative law judges’ recommendation, she pointed out that energy regulators in Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Oregon have all recently struck down coal plants.

Could this truly be the beginning of the end for outdated coal plants?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 2:52 pm by Fresh Energy and is filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.