LIMESTONE – The Loring Development Authority and a County developer are touting plans for a new source of electricity in Aroostook County, a conversion of the old steam plant at the former Air Force base into a 55-megawatt, oil- and natural gas-burning power plant that would also provide process steam for area industry.

Developer Hayes Gahagan said Stone & Webster Consultants Inc. could be producing power for Aroostook County and the New Brunswick Power Commission as soon as January 2006.

Last month, the $57 million project acquired an air emissions permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection, a step that cost the company more than $250,000 and required a year of work.

“It’s a major milestone for the project,” Gahagan said Monday. “That was a very good day for us.”

Earlier this year, the Loring Development Authority approved a resolution for bonding for the project through the Finance Authority of Maine. The project is moving ahead with partnerships from LDA, the Northern Maine Development Commission, the Aroostook County Empowerment Zone, the town of Limestone and the state.

Gahagan said the plant would have dual-fuel capacities, meaning it could generate electricity from two fuel sources, natural gas and No. 2 fuel oil.

An ambitious plan to transport natural gas to the Limestone plant involves a proposed overhaul of a 200-mile underground oil pipeline from Searsport on the coast to Limestone. The Air Force built the pipeline in the 1950s to ship jet fuel to its Loring Air Force Base, which closed in 1994.

It would intersect with the Maritimes & Northeast natural gas pipeline and carry gas north.

The plant’s power output could provide nearly half of Aroostook County’s needs, backers say.

The 200,000 pounds per hour of steam produced by the plant would be used for heating existing tenants at Loring and future processing plants. The plant would operate 24 hours a day for about 350 days a year.

Gahagan said the steam would be a natural for potato and wood operations on the former military base.

Gahagan said $7 million of the investment has been raised, and that backers are looking to sell $50 million of tax-free bonds to raise the remainder of the money.

Carl Flora, president of the Loring Development Authority, said Tuesday that the LDA is expecting to acquire title to the pipeline leg from Searsport to Bangor. The LDA already has title to the pipeline from Bangor to Limestone.

All the work has been completed for the transfer except for the final paperwork by the U.S. Air Force.

“We are ever so close to gaining title,” Flora said. “It should happen shortly.”

He said Gahagan’s group has options on the steam plant, and that the pipeline, once title is acquired, will become part of the option Gahagan’s group holds.

Gahagan said it is common practice in the industry to convert pipelines to new uses. Tests have included the insertion of small television cameras inside the pipeline, at 50 locations, to test its integrity. He also said two pump stations on the line would be converted to compression stations to keep up the gas pressure.

“If the pipeline would not have been good to convert, the process for the … project would have stopped,” he said. “There has been some interest by industries along the pipeline to connect.”

Industrial use is secondary to the project, he said. The production of electricity and the use of generated steam on existing buildings on the former base are enough to make the project viable.

“We are moving into high gear,” Gahagan said. “Our construction schedule requires us to be on line for the first quarter of 2006.”

The project requires 12 to 18 months of construction.

Gahagan said 750 jobs will be created during construction, and 40 permanent jobs would be created once the plant is operating, Gahagan said.

Once completed, the plant could mean an extra $250,000 a year in property tax revenue for Limestone.

“I’m kind of excited about the project, and it’s nice to see it coming together,” he said. “It’s been two years in the making.”