Dear Neighbor,
I attended a groundbreaking last week that will implement new technology in coal-fired energy. That project will create hundreds of jobs in Minnesota, protect our environment and ensure competitively priced energy for decades.
The event was hosted by Minnesota Power at the Boswell 4 coal-burning power plant in Cohasset, just west of Grand Rapids. Legislation I authored and led to passage in Minnesota several years ago spurred the technological advancements at Boswell. It was a bill called the Minnesota Mercury Reduction Act and it allows our coal plants to continue operating by upgrading their operations to clean up emissions.
There was strong concern that if we did not pass legislation like the MMRA, environmentalists would have created regulations so stringent that places like Boswell would have been put out of business. This retrofit will allow Boswell to comply with current state and federal mercury regulations, using modern technology to help protect our environment.
The Boswell project will cost around $430 million and provide jobs for an estimated 500 construction workers over the next few years. The modernization follows a similar $240 million project at the adjacent Boswell 3 coal burner, which was completed in 2010. Compared with 2005 levels, the work will eliminate around 90 percent of the mercury released into the air when coal is burned, while also reducing sulfur and other emissions by more than 70 percent.
Officials say this latest advancement will make Boswell – Minnesota Power’s largest coal-fired unit and largest electric generating station – one of the nation’s cleanest operations.
Sincerely,
Tom