Minnesota's Department of Commerce recommends closing Minnesota Power’s five oldest coal-fired power plants by 2020 to save consumers money. The Duluth News Tribune reports environmental groups have also sent letters urging the Public Utilities Commission to close the plants to reduce emissions.

The Commerce Department urged the Public Utilities Commission to order the three northern Minnesota plants closed by 2017 and replaced with energy from wind or natural gas. Instead, the commission ordered Minnesota Power, which owns the plants, to study the effects of closing them and report back next spring. The average age of the plants is more than 50 years.

Xcel Energy will soon need to purchase new pollution control equipment if the company wants to keep burning coal at its largest Minnesota power plant in Becker. Environmental groups want the state to order the utility to study alternatives to coal, especially solar and wind power.

Spiritwood Station, 85 miles west of Fargo, cost $437 million to build, but now Minnesota's Great River Energy is shutting it down just after starting it up. One executive tells the Star Tribune that running it would mean losing money half the time. The utility plans to keep the plant offline until at least 2013.

North Dakota is suing to force the state of Minnesota to drop restrictions on coal-generated electricity, but big utility companies here have already conformed to the rules and say they're not interested.

Therefore, North Dakota officials feel the state should be exempt from a Minnesota law that requires utilities to pay more to burn coal, even those from out-of-state. It's part of Minnesota's Next Generation Energy Act of 2007 that requires new coal power emissions to be offset.

The Public Utilities Commission ordered Xcel Energy to study the cost of new pollution control equipment at two of its coal-burning units in Sherburne County and compare that with the cost of replacing them with a cleaner alternative. Environmental groups consider the order a victory, but Xcel says it was planning something similar. The study is due next summer.