Coal plant keeps air permit

MONTANA - A coal-fired power plant being built near Great Falls can keep its air-quality permit after meeting a key construction deadline, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality said.

The 250-megawatt Highwood Generating Station is being built by the Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative. It has encountered numerous delays tied to problems raising money for the project, and to lawsuits by some environmental groups and residents of the Great Falls area.

The plant risked losing its air permit — first issued in May 2007 — if construction was not well under way by the end of November.

Southern Montana Electric scrambled to meet the deadline, starting construction in late October with only a small portion of the necessary funding in hand.

Charles Homer, DEQ permitting manager, wrote Southern Montana Electric on that the co-op had succeeded in deadline compliance.

Keeping the air permit helps the co-op make its case to potential investors that the power plant will be built, said Tim Gregori, general manager of Southern Montana Electric.

"Validating the air permit and showing we're under construction shows we have a valid project moving forward and there's a reasonable expectation the project will be completed," Gregori said.

Under the project's construction timeline, the plant could be operating by 2013.

Related News

'Unbelievably dangerous': NB Power sounds alarm on copper theft after vandalism, deaths

FREDERICTION - New Brunswick's power utility is urging people to stay away from its substations, saying the valuable copper they contain is proving hard to resist for thieves.

NB Power has seen almost as many incidents of theft and vandalism to its property in April and May of this year, than in all of last year.

In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the utility recorded 16 cases of theft and/or vandalism.

In April and May, there have already been 13 cases.

One of those was a fatal incident in Bathurst. On April 13, a 41-year-old man was found unresponsive and later died, after breaking into…

READ MORE
colstrip power plant

Hydro One will keep running its U.S. coal plant indefinitely, it tells American regulators

READ MORE

Can COVID-19 accelerate funding for access to electricity?

READ MORE

joe manchin

Manchin Calls For Stronger U.S. Canada Energy And Mineral Partnership

READ MORE

Ontario utilities team up to warn customers about ongoing scams

READ MORE