A proposed $400 million "clean coal" plant planned for southern West Virginia has run into financial trouble.

Western Greenbrier Co-Generation President Gary Skidmore says the company was unable to pay a $100,000 interest payment that would have given it more time to repay a $4.87 million bank loan.

Skidmore says the West Virginia Economic Development Authority, a Pittsburgh bank and an engineering firm that guaranteed the loan are in the process of repaying it. In turn, Skidmore says the company is working with the new creditors. He says the goal is to keep the project going long enough to issue $300 million in bonds next spring. The new creditors would then be repaid.

Western Greenbrier's financial problems come just as the project has gotten the go-ahead from the federal Department of Energy to start raising money and begin construction. The DOE would contribute about $107 million to the project, which would burn coal waste to generate about 98 megawatts of electricity.