Ames Tribune Iowa State University plans to end two things when it comes to the study or use of energy, but one loss — eliminating the use of coal on campus — would be considered a good thing, from the university's perspective. Pam Cain, ISU's senior vice president for operations and finance, told the Iowa Board of Regents' Property and Facilities Committee on Wednesday that the university wants to spend $16 million to replace the two remaining coal-fired boilers at the university power plant with natural gas-fired boilers. The university completed a $42 million conversion project in 2016 that replaced three of the five coal-fired boilers with ones fueled by natural gas, and received consent approval from the committee Wednesday for the last two boilers.