INDIANAPOLIS (September 13, 2005) ? Governor Mitch Daniels today offered his support of the proposed Crossroads Power Plant facility near New Carlisle. John Clark, the governor?s senior advisor and chairman of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, urged that a special use permit for the facility be granted during testimony before the St. Joseph County Council and Commission.

Clark said the proposed plant, which utilizes clean coal technology, is just the type of project the state?s new ?Clean Indiana Energy? Act, passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Daniels earlier this year, is intended to promote as Indiana?s energy needs grow in the coming years.

Indiana already has one plant in southern Indiana which utilizes the Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) technology that the Crossroads Project would use. Clark said Indiana would be the first state to host two of these highly desirable facilities.

Federal energy legislation passed this year also encourages new plants that use this technology.

Here is the governor?s full written statement to the council and commission:

STATEMENT BY GOVERNOR MITCH DANIELS TO THE ST. JOSEPH COUNTY COUNCIL AND COMMISSION

I urge your approval of the special use permit required by the proposed Crossroads ?Clean Coal? Power Plant to go forward.

Indiana needs an additional 2500 megawatts (MW) of new base-load electric generating capacity within the next three years (2008)--and TWICE that much new power within the next ten years (2015)--according to the most recent forecast by Purdue?s State Utility Forecasting Group. This new capacity must be low cost to maintain competitively-priced utility rates for economic growth and clean enough to meet stringent new Clean Air requirements.

I support the proposed Crossroads project as a clean and cost-effective step forward to meet a portion of our growing power needs. The plant would be located in western St. Joseph County on the site of a partially built, natural gas-fired facility that was fully permitted but eventually abandoned when the cost of gas made the cost of the power plant prohibitively expensive. Natural gas has become dramatically more expensive since then while the power this abandoned plant would have produced is needed more than ever.

My Administration pushed hard for the new ?Clean Indiana Energy? Act passed by the General Assembly last spring to spur the development of new ?clean coal? power plants using the Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) technology that the Crossroads Project will use. The new federal energy legislation passed earlier this summer also encourages new powerplants using this technology. IGCC is especially attractive to government policymakers at all levels due to its environmental attributes?it allows the use of Indiana?s and America?s most abundant fuel, coal, by refining the pollutants out of coal prior to its combustion for power generation. The technology would also enable the production of transportation fuels through its conversion of coal from a solid to a liquid.

St. Joseph County has the opportunity to host one of the first of these new ?clean coal? plants our state and nation have so strongly endorsed by approving the special use permit the Crossroads Project requires.

Indiana already hosts an IGCC plant on the Wabash River in southern Indiana.. Approval of the Crossroads Project would enable our state to become the first to host two of these much-desired IGCC power plants. Both Notre Dame and Purdue are already in discussions with Crossroads to perform gasification technology R and D at the facility. We are also working with CINERGY and others to build a new IGCC plant in Edwardsport near Indiana?s large coal deposits. These plants would combine with the new ?Clean Coal? Energy Center at Purdue (established in the just-passed federal energy legislation) that should make Indiana the national center of expertise and experience for these new ?clean coal? plants.

This would mean thousands of good new jobs for Hoosiers across the state. The needed new capacity from these plants would also keep our utility rates competitive and environment clean to further enhance future economic growth.

The special use permit the Crossroads project requests is very much in the national, state and local interests. It will provide much-needed new electricity supplies that are both clean and cost-competitive. This billion dollar plant will have a dramatic and positive economic impact on St. Joseph County?three million construction man-hours over its three years of construction, over 70 full-time jobs to operate the plant and millions of dollars of annual support expenditures in the community. Air emissions from an IGCC plant are far below Clean Air Act standards and sulfur removal efficiencies of more than 99% are achievable. This facility will have to fully satisfy the stringent environmental standards required of it and will be a good neighbor for all of us.

I strongly urge your granting the special use permit the Crossroads Project requires to go forward and appreciate the opportunity to appear before you tonight.