Mirant to shut down 2 N.Y. generators

<p>Energy company Mirant New York Inc. told a bankruptcy court Tuesday that it has decided to close two coal-fired generators rather than retrofit them to meet air pollution standards mandated by the state.</p><p>It also plans to close a smaller generator that burns oil or gas.</p><p>The closings in Rockland County, scheduled for 2007 and 2008, could have some effect on electricity supplies and prices in the area. The three units, the last ones in operation at the Lovett Generating Station in Stony Point, together generate about 400 megawatts of electricity, enough for 400,000 homes. They could be replaced, at higher cost, by natural gas-burning plants that are now running below capacity.</p><p>The closings also could add to the school tax burden, which has doubled for some residents of the area, partly because of a tax case victory the company won in court.</p><p>Mirant had agreed, under a 2003 consent decree with the state, to upgrade the generators or close them. A spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Mark Violette, said the generators had been "violating the Clean Air Act routinely for decades."</p><p>A spokesman for Mirant New York, which is a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Mirant Corp., said his company decided it would be "uneconomical" to bring the coal generators, known as No. 4 and No. 5, up to code. The No. 3 generator, spokesman Louis Friscoe said, also was being closed for economic reasons.</p><p>Notice of the company's plan was filed in bankruptcy court in Fort Worth, Texas, Friscoe said. The parent company emerged from bankruptcy in January, but Mirant New York remained in Chapter 11 proceedings pending the resolution of issues like the consent decree, he said.</p><p>Mirant recently won a court ruling that reduced the assessments of the Lovett facility and the Bowline Point Power Plant in Haverstraw. Property owners have to refund millions of dollars to the company for back taxes and pay more going forward.</p><p>So many residents of the North Rockland school district have had trouble coming up with the payments that the Union State Bank has announced special programs designed to help: low-cost personal loans that would give the taxpayers a longer time to pay and tax savings accounts to help them put aside money for future tax bills.</p><p>Friscoe said he didn't know how much in taxes would be lost to the town if the three generators go off the tax rolls but said, "It will have to be absorbed by the taxpayers."</p><p>A telephone call to Stony Point Supervisor Phil Marino was not immediately returned Tuesday.</p><p>Friscoe and Violette said they were open to discussing alternatives to closing the generators.</p>

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