INDEPENDENTS TARGET NIMO'S NINE MILE 1 PLANT.(Capital Region)

Byline: PETER WEHRWEIN Staff writer

If Niagara Mohawk would immediately shut down its 23-year-old Nine Mile 1 nuclear power plant, ratepayers would benefit from the cheaper power its members produce, according to the state association for independent power producers.

Independent power producers include companies such as Inter-Power of New York, the developer of the proposed coal-fired power plant in Halfmoon.

The quarrel over the economics of Nine Mile 1 is part of a larger, high- stakes fight over how much electricity the independents will sell to the utilities, and how much power the utilities will continue to generate at the larger power plants …