EXCERPT: “A Minnesota electric company that wants to sell its financially troubled coal-fueled power plant in North Dakota expects to know Friday if its member utility cooperatives will endorse the deal that includes purchasing electricity over the next decade from the factory’s prospective buyer. North Dakota officials have hailed the potential sale announced last month of Great River Energy’s Coal Creek Station to Rainbow Energy Center as a savior for hundreds of jobs at the plant and an associated lignite coal mine that are about 50 miles north of Bismarck. North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum called the announcement a ‘huge sigh of relief’ for the plant and mine, nearby communities and workers. But opponents believe the sale is delaying an inevitable closure, as coal continues to be eliminated from energy portfolios and regulations mount to curb the climate change effects of burning the fuel. The companies have not publicly disclosed terms of the deal, which includes an associated transmission line that runs more than 400 miles from central North Dakota to Minnesota. Maple Grove-based Great River supplies electricity to 28 rural Minnesota cooperatives, serving about 1.7 million people.” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/3j5rRgN
