GREAT FALLS, Mont. – As workers scramble to build an $800 million coal-fired power plant on a patch of farmland, a crisis that began on faraway Wall Street threatens to stretch the nation’s power supplies to the brink – driving up prices and laying the stage for future shortages.

The power industry is under extraordinary financial pressure just five years after North America suffered its worst blackout ever, when rolling outages turned out the lights on 50 million people. Even before the extent of the global credit crisis was fully known, the nation’s largest power providers warned of even bigger blackouts to come with the power grid under ever growing strain.

The industry has faced criticism for blackouts, but it also faces opposition to new plants and stringing new power lines.

With the economy teetering toward recession, it may face its toughest obstacle yet.

If credit woes put the brakes on scores of proposed plants, observers say a shift to other, more expensive fuels could end up soaking customers.

The alternative is more frequent and potentially extended outages.

“We have to have new (power generation) capacity at some point, or we’ll have brownouts, blackouts,” said Mary Novak, an economist with the consulting firm Global Insight. “The problem is, too many (utilities) are betting on delay.”

For Montana’s 250-megawatt Highwood plant, a Nov. 30 regulatory deadline forced developers to start building with only enough cash to lay the concrete foundation.

If additional financing fails, the electric cooperatives behind the plant will have to get their power from the more expensive open market – with customers footing the bill.

“It’s not without risk and a lot of anxiety,” John Prinkki, a Southern Montana Electric cooperative board member, said of breaking ground on the project. “But we’re between a rock and a hard place. We don’t have any choice – people are using more power than they ever have before.”

Utility representatives insist their projects still deserve financing. Yet even before the credit markets froze up, the industry had delayed dozens of coal plants, over climate change pressures and construction costs that effectively doubled in recent years.

Those cost spikes have reinforced the power industry’s position as one of the most capital-intensive in the economy.