Canon City, Colo. ? Black Hills Energy says it will close a coal-fired power plant in Canon City rather than try to convert it to a woody biomass facility.

The company in August advised the Public Utilities Commission that closure or biomass were the only options for the W.N. Clark plant. Vice president of operations Christopher Burke told the Pueblo Chieftain that state laws and other pending environmental regulations make the plant’s conversion to biomass too expensive.

PUC commissioners will take up the matter at a hearing next month.

The plant’s boilers were built in 1955 and 1959.

Black Hills provides electricity to 93,000 households in 21 Southeastern Colorado counties, including residents in Pueblo, Canon City and Rocky Ford. It is also the natural gas supplier in Lawrence.