The Miles City and Dickinson ventures are backed by the United State’s largest private owner of coal and one of the country’s biggest coal mining companies.
The 500-megawatt plants will include adjacent coal mines and wind-power facilities and are expected to be operational by 2008.
The two companies, Denver-based Great Northern Power Development and Omaha-based Kiewit Mining Group, plan to apply for the US$900 million permits later this year.
Three sites are being considered for the Miles City plant, including one at Kinsey, a small town north-east near the Yellowstone River, and sites north and south of Miles City.
Great Northern Properties currently hold 50 coal properties in eastern Montana. It purchased the lignite coal reserves from Burlington Resources in 1992.
Great Northern Power Development president Jerry Vaninetti told Associated Press the Miles City project would use lignite from an adjacent mine developed to exclusively serve the plant. The clean coal technology to be used at the plant is in use in several states, including California, where there are greater environmental restrictions, he said.
The Montana project is set to benefit from in-state power projects pro-development legislation which now allows for a speedy permitting process, a coal severance tax of five percent if used to produce power for in-state use and eliminated property taxes for 10 years for new power plants for in-state use.
Great Northern Properties currently holds land with 20 billion tonnes of coal in reserve. The Kiewit Mining Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Peter Kiewit Sons'.
