NATCHEZ &8212; The full Senate voted Tuesday afternoon to approve the full $15 million local leaders had requested for the Rentech project, Sen. Bob Dearing said.

The change now goes to the House for concurrence; if the House doesn&8217;t agree, the matter goes to conference committee.

There, groups of senators and representatives iron out the differences in House and Senate versions of bills.

The deadline for the Legislature to adopt such conference reports is March 27.

The Rentech money passed the House and Senate in other bills recently, but those bills included $2 million and $10 million for the project, respectively.

But it&8217;s common for such requests to be cut early in a legislative session, with funding partially or fully restored by the end of the session.

And Monday, the Senate Finance Committee upped the amount to $15 million, including it in House Bill 1634, a higher education bill.

Both Dearing and Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, said they feel sure the full $15 million will be included in the conference report adopted by the Legislature. &8220;All the technical and financial questions (representatives had) have been answered,&8221; Johnson said.

He added House Ways and Means Chairman Percy Watson has expressed his full support for $15 million for the project.

The Rentech plant, which would gasify coal to create a cleaner type of diesel fuel, would mean 200 permanent jobs &8212; with an average salary of $45,000 plus benefits &8212; and 1,500 construction-phase jobs.

The $15 million was requested by local leaders and officials of the Colorado-based Rentech to prepare the old Belwood Country Club site at the port for the $800 million project.