By Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier & Press
INDIANAPOLIS - Gov. Mitch Daniels celebrated the proposed Spencer County, Ind. coal-to-gas plant as a way to use Indiana resources to put Hoosiers to work this morning as he signed legislation that opens up financing for that plant.
Alongside lawmakers including Sen. Lindel Hume, D-Princeton, and Rep. Russ Stilwell, D-Boonville, Daniels put his name on the first bill to pass both chambers of the Indiana Legislature this year.
"America's future economically depends on finding ways to use resource (coal) which is incredibly abundant here," Daniels said. The notion that we could somehow abandon the use of coal is a prescription for poverty in this state."
Daniels said the billion-dollar plant that would save ratepayers millions of not billions over the coming decades, and would offer protection against potentially fluctuating prices.
That makes Indiana one of the nation's leaders in clean coal, he said.
"This has been a great bipartisan effort," he said. "We think we're very, very close to seeing [the plant] become real."
The legislation calls for the Indiana Finance Authority to buy and then immediately re-sell the pipeline-quality substitute natural gas the plant would create. That became necessary when talks between the plant's developers and Indiana utilities broke down last year.
Supporters say it's necessary to push utilities to use the more environmentally-friendly new technology. But opponents say if it's a bad deal for utilities, it's a bad deal for taxpayers, too.