The Utility Service Board unanimously approved what could be up to a fifty-year agreement with a company called SGP Energy Logansport at a special meeting yesterday. The agreement calls for an interim period of about a year where SGP Energy will test their product at the current generating plant, as R. Delbert LeTang explains.
“It allows us to work out, it allows us to go through all the necessary regulatory approvals and one of the things you heard me stress in the conversation here in response to a comment was that the IDEM and the EPA have very, very smart people that pay very close attention to these conversions and are responsible for ensuring the safey of the citizens when we use these technologies, and so we need to take the time to go through that approval process for all the involved parties and that, that takes time.”
SGP Energy Logansport is a division of SG Preston, which has also announced plans to build a $400 million biodiesel facility in Logansport.
The Utility Service Board unanimously approved an interim agreement, lease of the generating plant and a power purchase agreement with SGP Energy Logansport LLC, while the Logansport City Council approved a build-operate-transfer agreement on a 5-2 vote, with councilmen Jeremy Ashcraft and Chuck LaDow opposing.
Proponents of the project say it will preserve 31 jobs at the generating plant and eventually could create up to 100 jobs during the project’s 3rd phase, which is a projected investment of $250 to $300 million. Opponents say it was a hasty decision and little is known about the pellets that will be burned with coal during the year-long interim testing phase.
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