MARYSVILLE (WKZO-AM) — As the state legislature is working away at a new energy plan to keep the lights on in Michigan, utility companies are closing up old coal fired power plants that can no longer meet EPA regulations and can be replaced with gas-fired operations, or with alternative and renewable power sources.
Over the weekend, the B.C. Cobb Power Plant in Muskegon received its last shipment of coal.
The freighter, the James R. Barker, one of the largest on the Great Lakes, was scheduled to arrive Sunday to begin unloading coal that will be burned until the plant’s furnaces go cold in April.
On Saturday, a demolition crew set charges on the 93-year-old coal burning plant known as the “Mighty Marysville” and turned it into a pile of rubble and a cloud of dust.
Thousands of people on both sides of the St. Clair River, north east of Detroit and in Canada, were able to see it collapse into itself.
They plan to turn the property into a shopping plaza, a housing development and a marina.
– John McNeill