(The Associated Press circulated the following story on July 19.)
ABERDEEN, S.D. — If Mobridge is picked as the site of a proposed coal-burning power plant, the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railway could carry enough coal to run the operation, a top executive told community leaders.
“You just happen to be in the backyard of a tremendous energy source,” Tom Kraemer, the railroad’s vice president of coal marketing, said in referring to Mobridge’s proximity to coal reserves in Montana and Wyoming.
Fields in those states make up about half of the recoverable coal in the nation, he said. The coal also is cheaper than coal produced elsewhere, said Kraemer.
In January, five major power providers announced plans to build the power plant and identified Mobridge as one of five potential sites. Others under consideration are Yankton, Gascoyne, N.D., Stanton, N.D., and Modale, Iowa.
Montana-Dakota Utilities, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Missouri River Energy Service, Minnkota Power Cooperative and Heartland Consumers Power Plant are involved in project.
No decision has been made on a location, but officials have said they hope the plant will be operating in 10 years.
Curt Hohn, director of the WEB water project based in Aberdeen, said Burlington Northern needs to be involved as the community works to attract the power plant to the Mobridge area.
The project would create 1,000 jobs during the three years of construction and between 300-600 jobs during normal operation, said Hohn.
Jim Barringer, vice president of the Aberdeen Development Corp. and a member of the task force appointed to attract the project to Mobridge, said the group needs to figure out how to sway decision makers.
“It’s never too early to make a favorable impression,” Barringer said.
Some have questioned whether the area has sufficient power lines to handle the extra electricity the plant would create. But Hohn said he doesn’t think that will be a problem.
Those lines are used now in part to provide the area with outside electricity, he said. If the plant were located in Mobridge, there would be no need to import electricity, Hohn said. “Instead of power coming in, it would be going out.”