North Carolina lawmakers are backing a renewable energy project that could employ 1,000 on the polluted grounds of a former textile-dye manufacturing plant in Mecklenburg County.
The Senate voted 44-0 for final approval Friday on boosting the value of electricity generated by the project which includes a biomass power plant and a solar farm.
The measure allows power produced at ReVenture Park to count triple toward the requirement that state's utilities use or produce electricity from renewable sources. State law requires electric companies to get 3 percent of the power they sell from renewables by 2012.
Forsite Development's Tom McKittrick said all of Mecklenburg County's household garbage will be turned into electricity. The project is on 670 acres along the Catawba River.
