COLUMBUS — American Municipal Power-Ohio has applied for a $30 million low-interest loan set aside by the state of Ohio meant to increase the development, production and use of advanced energy technologies, including clean coal technologies.

Back in November, the Ohio Air Development Authority and Gov. Ted Strickland announced the advanced energy funding as part of a bipartisan $150 million job stimulus package. Of that $150 million, $66 million has been set aside for clean coal technology projects. This means AMP-Ohio is asking for nearly half of the funds available for clean coal technology.

“AMP-Ohio has proposed a $3 billion project in this state, that is the very definition of economic stimulus,” Kent Carson, spokesperson for AMP-Ohio said as to why the company applied for the loan.

“This is a state of the art technology despite what people keep saying,” Carson added. “This is a fundamentally different project...this is the responsible use of coal to generate electricity. Coal is the only natural resource we have an abundant supply of in this country.”

Carson once again defended the company’s planned use of the new Powerspan technology to capture pollution emissions. The technology is currently undergoing carbon dioxide capture testing.

“That’s the kind of thing that makes this project state of the art,” Carson said in regards to the proposed carbon capture element of Powerspan.

Carson also pointed out the use of Powerspan will result in less landfill waste because the technology doesn’t produce gypsum but a byproduct which can be made into fertilizer.

Some environmentalists remain unconvinced of Powerspan’s abilities or AMP-Ohio’s eligibility for the loan.

“That money is set aside for advanced energy products, there’s nothing about the AMP-Ohio plant that is advanced, this is old, sub-critical, pulverized coal technology,” Nachy Kanfer of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign said.

Kanfer said the Sierra Club doesn’t support the building of new power plants that don’t sequester carbon.

“In general coal has to be mined responsibly and not contribute to climate change,” Kanfer said. “There’s been no real example of this, the rest is a lot of talk.

An article in yesterday’s The Columbus Dispatch said AMP-Ohio plans to begin construction in 2010 on the Letart Falls plant. Though Carson had previously told The Daily Sentinel ground would likely be broken this year on the project, yesterday he maintained the company still has no firm date.

Whether or not AMP-Ohio does have that groundbreaking this year, Carson did say in the face of a softening in the commodities market and availability of raw materials “we know we can make up ground and still have the plant up and running by 2014.”