I submitted a guest editorial to the State Journal-Register two months ago about local clean energy projects and coal subsidies. Since it's not being used I might as well post it as a blog entry...
America's energy economy is rapidly changing. In the past several years, over 100 proposed coal plant projects were abandoned nationally. No coal plant construction has broken ground in over a year. The retirement of 20 aging, inefficient pulverized coal power plants have been announced in the last three months.
While coal is in decline, the growing Illinois wind industry surpassed 1,000MW of capacity in 2009 and created over 6,000 jobs. Springfield already gets about 19% of our power from wind. The General Assembly is now considering legislation to jump start Illinois solar power as well.
Additionally, President Obama is determined to revive the economy with green job programs like the home weatherization grants. Refrigerator rebate programs designed to reduce home energy use helped attract local jobs with the opening of an appliance recycling center in Springfield.
Unfortunately, the number of jobs created in central Illinois may be limited by politicians who create an unhealthy environment for change. Massive taxpayer subsidies to the coal industry, combined with a comparatively weak effort to encourage wind and solar manufacturing, create a market unfairly distorted to resist a more diverse energy supply.
The Sangamon County board, in the midst of a budget crisis, voted to give hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax breaks to a foreign-owned company for the expansion of a coal mine near Williamsville. The company also received over $1 million in grants under Rod Blagojevich, which were partially used to address their notoriously bad safety record. This is one common example of how the price of coal power is made artificially cheap by taxpayer support at every level of operation.
Politicians defend these subsidies by nostalgically promising to bring back coal mining jobs. What they fail to mention is that even though the amount of coal being mined in the United States has gone up over the last twenty years, the number of coal mining jobs nationally has gone down dramatically. It can't be blamed on environmental regulation. Mechanization allows the industry to extract more coal with fewer workers.
Mine employment peaked nearly 100 years ago and currently provides less than 4,000 mining jobs in Illinois. Besides employing fewer miners, current mountaintop removal and longwall mining methods do more damage to our land and water. No amount of taxpayer help will ever bring all the old jobs back to town or make coal truly clean.
A proposal to build a wind farm in Sangamon County is receiving a cooler reception than the mine expansion. The Regional Planning Commission states that the Sangamon county ordinance regarding wind turbines is already stricter than similar rules in most other Illinois counties. In response to citizens concerned about property values, the county is considering an amendment that would ban wind turbines within 1.5 miles of any building. Spokespersons for the company proposing the wind farm say the unprecedented restriction would halt their project and the jobs it will provide.
Other states are working aggressively to attract wind and solar manufacturing plants and construction projects. Central and Southern Illinois cannot compete for those jobs as long as our economic development efforts are heavily weighted to prop up a declining energy source. Creating a level playing field for large-scale wind and solar, while we increase investments in efficiency projects, will lead to a brighter economic future than clinging to the empty promise of coal's yesteryear. We can no longer afford to put all our eggs in a coal basket.