Keeping Dalhousie plant won't be easy: Tories

New Brunswick's Energy minister says it will be a challenge to keep the NB Powergenerating station open in Dalhousie.

Craig Leonard said the Alward government is looking for ways to keep the plant running.

But the opposition said the Conservatives are getting close to breaking another election promise.

Premier David Alward promised during last fall's election to cancel the shutdown of the plant while he looked for alternate fuel sources.

Dalhousie's been burning cheap oil from Venezuela, but the supply's running out and there's no way to buy more of it.

The only way the plant will be viable would be converting it to run on some other kind of fuel.

Leonard said Tuesdayfinding an affordable way to do that won't be easy.

Liberal leader Victor Boudreau said it sounds like the Conservative government is preparing to break Alward's election promise.

The Conservatives still aren't talking about closing it, butthey do say keeping it open won't be as easy as it may have seemed during the campaign.