Klobuchar secures funding for International Falls plasma energy project

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)secured $1 million in funding to explore turning municipal waste into energy in International Falls. The border town’s State Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) had secured early funding last year that allowed the city to do preliminary studies for the concept. Municipal waste burners are not without their controversy, but at least some of the federal stimulus chaff will be headed north. The only good thing for Amy being the lone senator from Minnesota is that she has a free shot to claim sole credit for matters like this. Cold comfort, I suppose.

From the International Falls Daily Journal:

Klobuchar secured nearly $1 million towards a new plasma gasification facility in Koochiching County that converts municipal solid wastes into energy and other marketable by-products in an environmentally sound manner. The Renewable Energy Clean Air Project would use the funds to conduct a feasibility study to assess technical, economic and environmental matters.

“This is the type of innovation and leadership that we need to achieve energy security,” said Klobuchar. “At a time of unstable energy costs it is important that we invest in new technologies and the homegrown energy that will create the new jobs and businesses that will fuel our future.”