Colorado Springs Utilities is trying to drum up business for the local company that invented sulfur dioxide scrubbers that are now at the center of a community debate about the future of the Martin Drake Power Plant downtown.

So far, no one has called back.

On Sept. 5, Chief Energy Services Officer Bruce McCormick mailed a letter to 10 utilities with coal-fired power plants in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Utah and Iowa touting Neumann Systems Group’s emissions-control technology.

“We chose NeuStream-S scrubbers because we thought NSG represented the best technology and best value for our ratepayers. We still do,” McCormick wrote in the one-page letter.

“Based on our success to date, we are happy to have partnered with NSG in this effort, and recommend them highly as a smart, honest, responsive, and cooperative partner for your flue gas desulfurization needs,” he wrote.

The letter was obtained by The Gazette under an open-records request.

The purpose of the letter was to “generate awareness and interest in the NeuStream solution among utilities with similar emissions-control needs,” Utilities spokesman Dave Grossman said in an email.

“The effort supports the 3 percent sales assistance fee portion of the agreement with Neumann Systems Group,” he added.

Under the $73.5 million contract between Colorado Springs Utilities and inventer David Neumann, Utilities stands to make 3 percent on the company’s gross sales of its scrubbers for 10 years.

McCormick’s letter apparently didn’t generate much interest.

The Palmer Ridge field hockey team waits with anticipation as a Colorado Academy player takes a shot on goal during an overtime shootout at the field hockey state championship Monday, October 29, 2012 at All-City Stadium in Denver. Photo by MICHAEL CIAGLO, THE GAZETTE

MICHAEL CIAGLO/THE GAZETTE