Louisiana Governor Supports New Plants

Gov. Kathleen Blanco is backing a proposed $1 billion expansion of Louisiana's Big Cajun II coal-fired power plant, which has received a crucial state air permit. This is the third power plant proposal the government has backed, including one for a new nuclear power plant being considered by the NuStart Energy Development LLC Consortium.

Blanco gave her backing last month to Cleco Corp.'s plans to build a new power plant in central Louisiana that would be able to use multiple solid fuels, primarily petroleum coke, a waste byproduct of crude oil refinement. Two weeks later, the governor announced that Louisiana was competing to land the country's first new nuclear energy plant in three decades.

On Monday, the governor stood with officials from NRG Energy Inc., at the Big Cajun II power plant in Pointe Coupee Parish, for the permitting announcement vital to the planned expansion of the facility.

Blanco lauded all three power plant proposals as economic development drivers that, in addition to creating permanent jobs in Louisiana, would shrink the state's heavy reliance on natural gas for electricity, as the costs of gas skyrocket and drive up energy bills. The governor said the price tags of those energy bills are hurting businesses -- and the state's attempts to attract them.

"Our industrial base is suffering. Our homeowners are suffering. Everybody is. It's time we look at the sources of fuel diversification," Blanco said.

David Crane, president and CEO of NRG Energy, said Louisiana is the second most dependent state on natural gas for power generation -- and he said the price of natural gas has quadrupled in three years.

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