The
Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) now has the permits needed for a new $182 million natural-gas powered electricity and steam plant in REO Town that would replace the coal-fired Moore's Park Steam Plant.
According to excerpts from the article:
The BWL next plans to secure funding for the project by issuing bonds, utility spokesman Mark Nixon said.
Construction is scheduled to start in the late spring or early summer of 2011, and the plant would be operational by early 2013.
The project will employ 1,000 construction workers, and approximately 180 utility employees will work at the plant.
The facility also will expand the BWL's ability to sell steam to customers in the downtown Lansing area.
"We are now the first utility in Michigan to receive a permit for a modern, clean, efficient generating plant that will actually reduce emissions," BWL General Manager J. Peter Lark said in a statement. "By switching to natural gas and closing an old, coal-fired steam plant, we will avoid burning 139,000 tons of coal each year."
The construction of the power plant is "terrific news," said Tim Daman, president and CEO of the
Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce.
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here.