http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/nrg-cancels-plans-igcc-plant/story.aspx?guid=%7B0116937C-B8AE-48AE-ADC3-5F259319FCDD%7D&dist=hpprNRG Energy, Inc. today issued the following statement regarding its planned clean coal project at its Huntley Station in western New York:
Today, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) informed NRG of its intent to allow their strategic alliance, formed in January 2007 to pursue development of NRG's clean coal project, to expire on July 22. This effectively ends our effort to develop a clean coal project at Huntley in its present form.
"In this era of sky high prices for oil and natural gas, it is critical that we demonstrate how to capture and store greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants so that we can use our most affordable and available domestic fuel source," said David Crane, President and CEO, NRG Energy. "Of course, we are disappointed in the State's action today, but we recognize that the necessary funding was not there. The Huntley IGCC project was, in many ways, ahead of its time."
The RFP process, which concluded in December 2006, was intended to expand an existing site and push forward a utility-scale clean coal plant that would be operational in near term. This RFP was the result of multiple state agencies - including the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Public Service, the Empire State Development Corporation, the New York State Environmental Research and Development Agency, the New York Power Authority and the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform, which led the project - working together on a framework to build an advanced clean coal power project to help reduce dependence on imported energy. NRG's project received the endorsement of federal, state and local leaders and most importantly, the local community in Erie County that would benefit most from this project.
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