Community News
BWL approves natural gas plant; environmentalists disagree
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Lansing’s Board of Water and Light approved a $500 million natural gas plant that environmentalists argue should have been a renewable energy plant. During the BWL’s regular board meeting on March 27, board members gave final approval to replace the coal-powered Erickson Power Plant with a gas-fired power plant. The plant, which is expected to be completed by 2021, will reduce BWL carbon emissions by 80 percent. Although the BWL is working to rely less on coal, environmentalists worry about the impact fracking has on the groundwater. Hydraulic fracking extracts natural gas by using high pressure liquids to blast target rock formations apart.