BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A proposal to generate power in southeastern Louisiana with petroleum coke has been suspended.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission decided Wednesday to order Entergy Louisiana to suspend its plan for the Little Gypsy plant in St. Charles Parish. The ruling was issued without dissent and without comment from Entergy.
In late 2007, the PSC approved converting a generator from natural gas to petroleum coke, a plentiful byproduct of the refining process.
Since then, questions have been raised about whether consumers would benefit. PSC chairman Lambert Boissiere says that in addition to lower gas prices, the cost of the project has escalated sharply and the Obama administration has not spelled out how carbon emissions might be regulated.
The PSC has asked Entergy to return for the board’s April meeting to discuss the economic viability of continuing the project.
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