Feds pull out of Greenbrier power plant project

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal officials have quietly pulled the plug on funding for construction of the proposed Western Greenbrier Co-Generation plant.

U.S. Department of Energy officials now list the $416 million facility as "discontinued."

Developers have for more than five years struggled to come up with private money to match DOE funds, and environmental groups have complained that the project would pollute local air and water.

DOE spent more than $8 million on project planning, and the West Virginia Economic Development Authority lost $3 million in a loan guarantee approved in 2004 by the Wise administration.

"It's good that the federal government finally came to its senses," said Joe Lovett, director of the Lewisburg-based Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, which challenged plant permits.

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