The Salem, Mass., Planning Board has delayed action until its May 16 meeting on consideration of a special permit for the demolition of the current coal plant and development of a new combined-cycle gas plant on Salem Harbor property.
Published reports in Massachusetts indicated that a sizable crowd turned out for a special permit hearing May 2 on Footprint Power’s proposed 350-MW gas plant. Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment late May 6.
A public hearing was held on the matter May 2 but no action was taken. Footprint Power is seeking to build a new combined-cycle natural gas on the power plant property previously operated by Dominion (NYSE:D).
Footprint would tear down the old fossil facility and build a new combined-cycle gas plant on a roughly 20-acre site.
Footprint is pursuing a 350-MW combined-cycle power plant that would open around 2016. Footprint reached an agreement in the summer of 2012 to buy the existing Salem Harbor coal and oil power plant from a Dominion subsidiary. The legacy fossil plant is expected to close by the end of 2014.
