
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 5, 1990                   TAG: 9006060390
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CLEAN-COAL PLANS FACE MORE DELAYS

The U.S. Department of Energy has decided to delay a fourth call for proposals in its $5 billion clean-coal technology program because of uncertainties with congressional budgetary and environmental legislation.

The department planned to ask for proposals involving $600 million in federal matching funds on June 1.

But with the outcome of congressional action on the Supplemental Appropriations Act and the Clean Air Act uncertain, going ahead with the fourth round now would pose the risk of later having to cancel it or amend it, said Energy Secretary James Watkins.

The clean-coal projects are intended to demonstrate new ways of burning coal more cleanly and efficiently than with today's technologies.

American Electric Power Co., parent of Roanoke's Appalachian Power Co., is the country's largest coal-burning utility and one of the biggest boosters of clean-coal technologies.

AEP already has signed an agreement with the Energy Department to share the cost of a clean-coal unit at the company's Philip Sporn power plant in New Haven, W.Va. AEP will pay $185 million of the total cost of $600 million for the project.

The postponement of the fourth round of grants will have no effect on AEP's clean-coal projects, a company spokesman said.

Provisions added by the Senate to the Supplemental Appropriations Act currently being discussed by a House-Senate conference committee would delay the fourth round of the clean-coal program until September 1991.

Clean Air Act amendments in the House would restrict participation in the clean-coal program to a select group of utilities, mostly in the Midwest, the department said.

***CORRECTION***

Published correction ran on June 6, 1990\ Due to a reporter's error, American Electric Power Co.'s contribution to a clean-coal technology project at its Philip Sporn plant in West Virginia was incorrectly reported in Tuesday morning's paper. AEP will contribute $472 million to the $660-million project with the U.S. government's share being $185 million and the state of Ohio contributing $3 million.

Memo: CORRECTION

by CNB