State’s Attorney tells County Coal Board wind farm being used to kill coal plant
Reprinted from the Western North Dakota Energy Association
Presenting to a special meeting of the Coal Conversion Counties Association last week, McLean County State's Attorney Ladd Erickson said he believes a proposal to build
an 800-megawatt wind farm in the region is being used to justify shutting down Coal Creek Station. Great River Energy, the owner of the 1,100 megawatt coal plant near Underwood, announced in January that it was considering shutting down one or both units and would replace the generating capacity with wind turbines backed by a natural gas-fired plant. Erickson said most wind farms offer an economic benefit to the region in which they are built, generating additional tax revenue, new jobs and lease payments to landowners. But he said the plan being considered by GRE is different. "This is using wind turbines to destroy a perfectly modern, up-to-date, power plant that is desperately needed for baseload energy
supply," Erickson said.
