Illinois legislators should learn from the experience of other states as they consider Tenaska's coal gasification plant proposed in Taylorville. Duke Energy's coal gasification project in Edwardsport, Indiana reached $1 billion in cost overruns and they're asking state ratepayers to foot the bill. One regulator "noted that it is not uncommon for technologically sophisticated generating projects to involve a high degree of uncertainty."
When building an unproven technology, like Taylorville's coal gasification and carbon capture proposal, it's very likely that unexpected costs will occur. That's a big risk for Illinois ratepayers. Legislation to subsidize Tenaksa's plant would raise rates for everyone in Illinois initially, and in addition, over 1/3 of cost overruns could be passed on to ratepayers.
The reality is that a coal gasification plant has never been built on budget, and they produce some of the most expensive energy on the market. There are cleaner, cheaper alternatives that will produce just as many jobs.