FORT DRUM — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Monday that he will urge the Defense Department to approve a contract with ReEnergy Holdings, an alternative energy company that is in the midst of a $30 million overhaul of the former coal plant here.

Mr. Cuomo, speaking to reporters, ReEnergy workers, and area officials at the company's plant on post, said that he will sent Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta a letter in support of ReEnergy's project. The Albany-area company wants to supply power for Fort Drum, the home of the 10th Mountain Division.

The project, Mr. Cuomo said, illustrated the state's new direction when it comes to economic development, summed up by the motto: "The new New York works for business."

"This is exactly what we have been talking about," Mr. Cuomo said.

Larry Richardson, the president of ReEnergy, said that contract talks with the Department of Defense are still ongoing.

When the project is finished, the biomass plant will be able to burn the remnants of the logging industry — wood chips and other wood residues — to generate electricity. The project will create 300 jobs, Mr. Richardson said: 33 at the plant, more than 100 in the logging industry, with the rest going to workers at companies in the north country that will help support the plant when it's operational.

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