Coleman supports clean-coal projects

Bill Hanna

Mesabi Daily News

WASHINGTON — Minnesota Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman will testify today at a Senate committee hearing where his bill dealing with carbon capture, transportation and sequestration will be discussed. The bill has bipartisan co-sponsors.

Coleman, in a telephone interview from the nation’s Capitol Wednesday afternoon, said he is strongly supportive of clean-coal projects as part of an overall energy policy to make the country less energy dependent on Mideast oil. And he said one of those projects is the proposed Excelsior Energy coal gasification venture for the Iron Range.

The $2 billion Excelsior Energy project proposes at least three units across the Range, with the first one slated for the Bovey/Taconite area. Each one would create 1 million man hours of construction work and at least 100 permanent jobs. Excelsior CEO Tom Micheletti has said he hopes for construction on the first unit to begin in 2009.