Kansas City, Kan. ? The Board of Public Utilities have dropped plans to build a coal-fired plant and will consider other ways for meeting growing power demands in Wyandotte County.

The board had been planning a coal-fired plant in Kansas City, Kan., for several years, but board members said increasing costs prompted them to decide not to include costs for a power plant in the 2008 budget.

Administrators said they would consider building a combustion turbine fueled by natural gas. The plant was to be completed by 2012, and a $2.7 million contract had been awarded to Black & Veatch for preliminary engineering services.

Board President Robert Milan Sr. said Friday that the plant would cost far more than the estimated $600 million because of increasing costs, many caused by environmental regulations. He did not have an estimate of the costs.

The Environmental Protection Agency has begun civil and criminal investigations of the board after stories were published in March about a legal analysis prepared by a lawyer in 2004 that showed 15 upgrades at the utility’s power plants may have violated federal clean-air rules. The document said the BPU could face thousands of dollars in fines.

But Milan denied that the inquiry had anything to do with this week’s decision not to build a coal-fired plant.