May 21 - The Wisconsin State Journal



Alliant Energy is giving up on the idea of building more coal-fired power plants "for the time being," Alliant chairman, president and chief executive Bill Harvey said Thursday.

In an interview after the Madison utility holding company's annual shareholders meeting, Harvey said Alliant subsidiary Wisconsin Power & Light will not ask for a new coal-fueled power plant to replace one proposed for Cassville that state regulators rejected in late 2008.

"I think it's politically ... too risky to think about building coal plants until climate legislation gets in place," Harvey said. "There's got to be substantial technological improvements before the country returns to building coal plants. That's certainly true for us," he said.

Thanks to adequate power available to buy on the electric transmission grid, Harvey said it will likely be two or three years before Alliant proposes building another natural-gas-fired power plant. That could happen sooner, though, if the economy recovers quickly or if climate change rules force the company to abandon its older coal-fired power plants sooner than expected.

 As for nuclear power, Harvey said Alliant is not big enough to consider spending up to $10 billion to build a nuclear plant but it might buy part of a new one, if one is built. "We have to consider that. We have to consider all possibilities," he said.

About 220 shareholders attended the annual meeting in the Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center.

Harvey lamented "disappointing" financial results with sales "down dramatically" due to factory closings and the cool weather last summer.

For the full year, Alliant's earnings were $111 million, or $1.01 a share, on revenue of $3.4 billion, down from earnings of $288 million, or $2.61 a share, on revenue of $3.7 billion in 2008.

Harvey said Alliant cut 276 positions last year, including 30 in upper management; froze employee pay; enacted one-week furloughs for salaried employees and members of one Iowa union; and cut company contributions to retirement programs.

He said 2010 is showing improvement. "I believe we're in a good spot," he said at the meeting.

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