NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - LS Power suspended the proposed 750-megawatt Mid-Michigan pulverized coal power plant in Midland, Michigan, due to economic and regulatory uncertainties, the company said in a release Friday.

The Mid-Michigan project faced many obstacles over the past year causing delays and increasing the cost and risk to continue development efforts, LS said.

"Last year's energy legislation in Michigan restricting the available customers for the project, combined with current economic conditions and regulatory uncertainties, has deferred the immediate need for base load energy from the (Mid-Michigan) project," said Robert Colozza, vice president for LS, in the release.

Michigan legislation last fall limited the amount of power customers can buy from competitive suppliers like LS.

Since LS is not a regulated utility it cannot recover the cost to develop and build power plants, said Joy Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Mid-Michigan, noting the company had already spent about $4 million developing the project.

Also, LS said, securing the air permit was taking longer than anticipated.

LS filed with the state Department of Environmental Quality almost two years ago and still did not have a hearing date, Buchanan said.

Moreover, in February Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) said companies developing coal power plants had to redo their analysis on why a coal plant is better than some other type of plant.

"Given these factors, we determined it is not a wise business decision to continue active development of the (Mid-Michigan) project at this time," Colozza said.