Rural co-op cancels coal-fired power plant in Mo.

Yet another coal-fired power plant, this one planned for western Missouri and serving the great majority of the state's rural electric customers, has been scratched because of "rising costs and an uncertain regulatory climate," The Associated Press reports.

"A member of the board of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. says it has voted to delay the project indefinitely," AP reports. "Growing concern over global warming has led to speculation that the federal government will soon regulate greenhouse gases." Several other electric utilities have canceled or postponed plants for the same reason. (Read more)
The large rural utility serves 850,000 customers of six regional and 51 local electric cooperatives in Missouri, northeast Oklahoma and southeast Iowa. It wanted to build a 780-megawatt plant near Norborne, a town of 779 about an hour east of Kansas City. (Encarta map) Its Web site says it is the only Missouri utility with wind power on its system.