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RELEASE: MN House approves the building of natural gas fired power plant at Sherco plant site

Thursday, February 9, 2017
SAINT PAUL- Today, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed HF113, a bill facilitating the building of a natural-gas fired power plant to replace the two coal-fired units slated for shutdown at Xcel Energy’s Sherco electric generating complex in Becker, Minnesota. Rep. Jim Newberger (R-Becker) is chief author of this bill in the House. Governor Dayton announced earlier in the day that he would support a similar proposal working its way through the Minnesota Senate.

 

 

“I am so pleased that Governor Dayton has come to see that this approach is the best solution to maintaining energy security in our state, and stability for Becker,” said Rep. Jim Newberger. “The PUC’s non-decision left Becker with uncertainty, and I am so glad that after our continued efforts, we can move now forward with replacing some of our retiring coal-fired units with gas-fired units. This will provide our state with clean, baseload power, in addition to maintaining Becker’s tax base and job security for its residents. It’s a win-win situation, and I am pleased to have support from legislators from across the aisle in addition to my own caucus.”

 

 

Prior to this bill’s passage, the Public Utilities Commission had decided to delay their decision on whether or not the coal-fired units at Sherco could be replaced by gas-fired units. The PUC also had not offered viable alternative solutions to produce baseload power for the portions of Minnesota served by the Becker plant, and maintain energy industry jobs in the Becker community.

HF113 passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 77/51.

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