Defunct Coal Plant to Get EPA Review

FAIRBANKS — The next two months should clear the fog surrounding the experimental Healy clean coal project, but the decision to use the power plant could fall to a question of semantics: Has the combustion unit been “shut down” for 10 years, or is it merely the subject of a “delayed start-up?”

Regulators reviewing that question could finish their review by mid-summer, and Golden Valley Electric Association, which wants to buy the plant, could hold renewed operating permits in July or August.

Golden Valley says upgrades to the Healy unit, slumbering since its experimental technology proved too expensive a decade ago, won’t change emissions beyond what had been expected during construction.