Power Company Tri-State Pitches $10M CO2 X Prize

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A power company says it's raising money for a multimillion-dollar prize to spur technology to capture and use carbon dioxide emitted from coal-fired power plants.

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc., seeks to sponsor a $10 million X Prize. The winner would show they could economically capture carbon emissions and then put that carbon to use.

The X Prize Foundation was behind the $10 million Ansari X Prize which led to the first private, manned spaceflight in 2004.

Tri-State Vice President Jim Spiers (SPY'-ers) told a Wyoming Infrastructure Authority meeting in Cheyenne yesterday it's not economically feasible for Tri-State to reduce CO2 emissions by modifying its coal-fired power plants to burn natural gas.

Westminster, Colo.-based Tri-State supplies electricity to utilities in Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and New Mexico.