A request for $12 million from the state for Koochiching County’s Renewable Energy Clean Air Project hasn’t been carried in either the Minnesota House or Senate bonding bills.

County Commissioner Mike Hanson, who is leading the project, said a bill, Senate File 2520, was introduced by Sens. Tom Bakk, Tom Saxhaug and Keith Langseth, to include the project in the bill, but it was not included in the Senate or House versions of the bill.

Hanson said Gov. Mark Dayton and Ellen Anderson, Minnesota Public Utilities commissioner, who have both supported the project, may advocate for including the project in the final bonding bill.

The project involves using a plasma arc torch to vaporize garbage and other bio-waste to create energy. An official with Boise’s International Falls paper mill indicated earlier that the company is exploring the possibility of being potential partners in the project and a buyer of the energy byproduct. Koochiching County is one of only a handful of plasma gasification projects being considered worldwide that is at this stage of the development process.

The project has been awarded about $5 million in state and federal funding, which is being used to finish design work.

“We’re hoping, within the next four-six weeks, that we can show people a virtual design, rather than having a 500-page blueprint,” said Hanson. “This would be a sort of electronic version for a 3-D look at it.”

Hanson said the project is moving forward now at a more rapid pace than the previous several years since county officials began exploring the project.

The private firm Coronal is a partner in the project.

And even if the state does not award bonding money to the project, Hanson said “we’ll keep working on it, just like everything else we do.”

He added that officials involved in the project have been approached “by private folks interested in potentially investing,” but could not elaborate further at this time.

And, he said, attempts to garner money from the U.S. Department of Energy for the project are being made.

“I have a good, positive feeling moving forward, and the pace of development should pick up in the next 12 months,” said Hanson.