Indiana regulators revoke coal-gasification plant's permit

ROCKPORT, Ind. (AP) - State regulators have revoked an air permit for a proposed $2.8 billion coal-gasification plant in southwestern Indiana at the request of the plant's developer.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management informed Indiana Gasification LCC on Thursday that its air permit had been revoked.

IDEM's letter says New York-based developer Leucadia National Corp. asked the state to rescind the permit because construction of the coal-gasification plant had never begun.

The plant would have turned coal into synthetic natural gas at a site about 30 miles east of Evansville.

A state contract signed during former Gov. Mitch Daniels' administration committed Indiana to buying the plant's synthetic gas for 30 years and reselling it to consumers.

The Indiana Supreme Court upheld the company's state contract with the Indiana Finance Authority in December 2013.