Company drops plans for coal-fired power plant

 

SWEETWATER, Texas (AP) — A company has dropped plans to build a coal-fired power plant in West Texas.

Omaha-based Tenaska says it will focus on the development of natural gas-fueled and renewable facilities.

The company had been pursuing plans for the plant near Sweetwater and one in Taylorville, Ill., more than five years.

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The Texas plant would have used new technology to recover up to 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. The emissions would have been sold to oil companies for underground piping to help recover oil. Carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants are believed to contribute to global warming.

The proposed Sweetwater plant faced many hurdles, including scarcity of water.

Whitney Root, who leads Texans Against Tenaska, said the plant would have taken water away from families and farmers and left pollution.