By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. July 30, 2011 (AP)

General Electric and the University of Wyoming announced Friday they have suspended plans to build a $100 million joint clean coal research facility near Cheyenne amid uncertainty in the nation's energy policy, lower natural gas prices and tepid demand for electricity.

Construction of the High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center was expected to begin this year and finish in late 2012. The plant would have been a test site for turning coal into gas, which burns more cleanly than coal.

The project had reached the bidding phase. The university and GE were reviewing proposals from the two firms competing to build the plant when GE decided to suspend the project, said Bill Gern, the university's vice president for research and economic development.

"GE called us," Gern said. "We were in the process of really starting to say we were ready to select the design builder."

Gov. Matt Mead called the decision disappointing but not surprising, saying the U.S. and Wyoming are strangled in energy development by lack of a national energy policy.

"This is a real world example of the local impact of the federal government's failure to provide a policy path forward for energy use in America," he said in a statement.

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