Court of Appeals upholds plan for Minnesota Power’s Boswell plant

The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday released a decision affirming Minnesota Power’s plans to reduce mercury but keep burning coal at its Boswell 4 power plant in Cohasset.
The court affirmed the decision by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to back Minnesota Power’s plan to reduce mercury at the big coal-burning plant.
Environmental groups had filed an appeal of the Public Utilities Commission ruling, saying the commission should have required Duluth-based Minnesota Power to look at replacing coal with natural gas for the power plant. Natural gas produces far less airborne mercury, which can become toxic when it falls back to earth.
But the court said the commission was not required to order the utility to consider replacing the source of electricity, only to add pollution-reducing technology to the existing source of energy.