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Economy

Hydro Power Project Dropped

Missouri River Energy Services had been considering building a hydro power dam at Lock and Dam 15.
Joseph Novak
/
Flickr
Missouri River Energy Services had been considering building a hydro power dam at Lock and Dam 15.

Five years after it began to study the feasibility of using the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities to generate electricity, a South Dakota-based utility company has decided to drop the project. Based in Sioux City, Missouri River Energy Services had been considering building a hydro power dam at Lock and Dam 15.

Spokesman Ray Wahle says there are just too many unknowns right now, including government regulations on clean energy, and because typically projects like this can take 15 years to get started.  
Wahle says hydro electric power is clean, reliable, renewable, and "well understood," but there are very few projects in the works these days.

wahle2.mp3
Wind and solar are the hot renewables right now.

His company is still interested in hydro power, but has decided to focus its attention on its other forms of generation for now - fossil fuel, nuclear, wind, and solar.

Because Missouri River Energy Services dropped its study of Lock and Dam 15 and the Mississippi River, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is free to accept proposals from other companies.  

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.