A laboratory where teams of researchers will study how to keep carbon dioxide emitted by coal-fired power plants from entering the atmosphere will be built at a Basin Electric power plant near Gillette, a spokesman for Gov. Matt Mead said Wednesday. A construction date has not been set. “That doesn’t make sense to me, and it particularly doesn’t make sense to me now that we are in these tough times in regards to our revenue”. The goal is to develop new technology to turn carbon dioxide into useful products, instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

Governor Mead says the state could see a budget shortfall of $200 million by next summer. Coal production in Wyoming has fallen by 17 percent since 2008, according to a report by the University of Wyoming issued this spring.

Those funds have been pledged by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc. The current budget put up $175 million for that objective.

Nearly the same amount of money is going into the recently announced NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize: $10 million from utility NRG Energy Inc. and $10 million from Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, a group of 13 companies working on reducing the environmental effects of oil sands exploitation. “I’m thrilled to announce as well that XPRIZE Foundation will be the first tenants in the ITC”. The authority promotes development of pipelines, power lines and other infrastructure to help export electricity and fossil fuels from Wyoming to other states.

“We’re excited to be part of this project”, said Paul Sukut, Basin Electric CEO and general manager.

Dry Fork has been chosen for the lab, Mead spokesman David Bush confirmed Wednesday. “Virtually every projection shows coal use growing globally and the ITC aims to prove that technology can improve coal’s environmental footprint”.