The Rock-Tenn recycling plant in St. Paul could begin burning bio-gas. An advisory group endorsed the plan Monday night.
The bio-gas would be produced in rural Minnesota and fed into the state's existing natural gas pipelines.
Nancy Hone helped organize a group that fought an earlier plan to burn garbage for energy at Rock-Tenn. She said her group will continue to monitor the process, to make sure the bio-gas plant -- wherever it is built -- will be clean.
"We don't want to have our problem out there. We don't want to just shift the problem from here to there; that's not how we think, we think of the planet," Hone said.
State Senator Ellen Anderson backed legislation that required the St. Paul Port Authority to work with the advisory group. She said the plan is a good one.
"It will keep the Rock-Tenn plant open and save hundreds of good jobs, and it will provide an energy source that's really clean, that everyone in the community can support, I believe," Anderson said.
Bio-gas could be produced at an ethanol or sugar beet plant, or at a large feed lot.
Bacteria would convert the waste materials into methane, which can be further refined to burn as clean as natural gas.
The bio-gas plant would be built using federal loan guarantees.