Illinois Wasting Millions on Another Coal-to-Gas Pork Project

My new blog at Huffington Post is on the latest Illinois coal subsidy fail. 

The state of Illinois is throwing millions of taxpayer dollars at another coal-to-gas plant just two years after a similar project ended in failure.
The Coal Development Fund has so far given Homeland Fuels two grants totaling$4.25 million in taxpayer dollars. The first grant was awarded in 2013 to fund a study for the proposed "Coal to Diesel Pilot Project" next to their coal supplier, which will apparently be a nearby Chris Cline-owned mine in central Illinois. The company moved addresses from Hillsboro to Litchfield before receiving a second grant for $3,500,000. There's no indication of how the plant would limit their global warming emissions or other environmental impacts.

Read and share the rest.

Time to retire the Illinois Office of Coal Development

The Illinois Times published my guest op-ed this week about ending state coal subsidies. I'm excited about this one.

Although the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity promotes green jobs in the new energy economy, the Office of Coal Development keeps downstate officials disproportionately focused on nostalgia for old coal jobs. The empty promise of reviving coal led to disappointment in Mt. Vernon, Mattoon and Taylorville. The state wasted tens of millions in direct payments and offered tax breaks to subsidize “clean coal” plants proposed in those communities that never materialized.

“Clean coal” pipe dreams squandered years of effort and money that could have been used to attract green jobs to communities that badly need them. Now, even extreme coal boosters like Congressman John Shimkus, who supported the projects, admit carbon sequestration isn’t economically viable or ready for large-scale deployment.

Message makers in the big green groups should take note that the editorial only makes passing reference to the environment and argues how the new energy transition can be good for coal country economically.

Frankenstorm economic plan brought to you by the coal and oil industry

I've heard a lot during the election about how great burning coal is for the economy. I can see that now...

Failed clean coal projects cost Illinois taxpayers millions

Illinois is attempting to become ground zero for clean coal projects. That effort cost state taxpayers millions of dollars for failed coal plants that will never be built. I recently filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) to find out how much their Office of Coal Development (OCD) gave to several proposed coal plants that were abandoned.

The OCD boasts of spending more to support the coal industry than any other state in the union. In 2011 their three primary coal programs spent $408.5 million in state taxpayer funds. Much of that spending is for coal mines and aging plants. For this post, I'll focus on their support of four failed projects based on the results of my FOIA request and the DCEO grant tracker.

Tenaska's Taylorville Energy Center
I haven't seen an official announcement that Tenaska is abandoning the Taylorville Energy Center, but it's definitely down for the count. After repeatedly failing over several years to pass a special rate-hike bill through the legislature, they scaled back their plans from a coal gasification and sequestration project to a natural gas plant. That appeared to cost them support from coal-friendly legislators without gaining the additional votes they needed. In July, their construction permit was withdrawn after U.S. EPA took issue with its failure to require carbon sequestration. Without a permit and little chance of getting supportive legislation, this project hasn't got a pulse.

The Coal Demonstration Program gave Tenaska $18 million in 2010. That came after Tenaska spent $2.5 million in grants given in '06-'07. State taxpayers spent $20.5 million in direct grants for the Taylorville Energy Center. That comes out to a  little over $1,800 for every resident of Taylorville.

As if that weren't enough, Tenaska expected to qualify for $30 million to $60 million per year in clean coal tax credits included in the federal stimulus bill.

The company also received preliminary qualification for a $2.579 billion federal Department of Energy loan guarantee. Their application was strongly supported by area Congressman John Shimkus. He even sent a member of his staff (who's currently running for Congress) to speak at a public hearing in favor of the loan guarantee. Later, Shimkus was outspoken in hearings criticizing the loan guarantee Solyndra received from the same Department of Energy program. In Shimkus' view, a loan guarantee for a failed solar project is worth holding hearings over, but a loan guarantee five times bigger for a failed coal project in his own district is never mentioned.

Power Holdings of Illinois
Aurora-based Power Holdings sought to build a plant in rural southern Illinois that would convert coal to synthetic natural gas. It's difficult to tell how serious they were since the company never had the finances or expertise to complete it on their own. They did manage to get the coal-friendly Illinois legislature to pass a bill forcing several utilities into 10-year contracts to buy the plant's output.

Power Holdings received three OCD grants for studies and early engineering work in 2006 and 2010 totaling $4.05 million. Additionally, an economic empowerment zone was extended to provide the owners a variety of state and local tax breaks, despite objections from residents neighboring the proposed site.

Power Holdings finally declared defeat when they were unable to find enough investors who thought it was a good idea to create a very expensive, dirty way to produce synthetic natural gas from coal at a time when regular natural gas is plentiful and cheap. The market wouldn't support this bad idea, even with mandatory contracts and millions in subsidies.

Leucadia
On Chicago's south side, another coal-to-gas plant was proposed in an area already suffering from environmental public health threats. Governor Pat Quinn vetoed a bill that would have guaranteed profits for Leucadia and potentially cost consumers billions of dollars in rate hikes. That forced the company to give up, acknowledging that it can't continue without special manipulations of the market.

Leucadia was awarded $250,000 in 2009 for a feasibility study. The next year they were granted $10 million more for additional studies and cost estimates. Millions of dollars in taxpayers funds were awarded in the early stages of the project when the company had not even applied for an EPA permit, had no legislative approval they needed to proceed, and faced significant community opposition.

FutureGen Episode 1: The Phantom Hope
The George W. Bush administration started FutureGen as a research project to demonstrate the viability of clean coal and carbon sequestration. Mattoon, Illinois won a competition to host the plant, but the federal Department of Energy soon abandoned the effort due to escalating costs. That failure wasn't taken as signal about the viability of clean coal, so a new "FutureGen 2.0" is now proposed in Meredosia, near Jacksonville, Illinois.

The first incarnation of FutureGen proposed in Mattoon was given three Coal Competitiveness Program grants totaling $1.32 million. Coles county invested millions and extended an enterprise zone to exempt FutureGen from paying many local taxes. The community was left devastated and angry when FutureGen was scuttled.

Demonstrating the persistence of Wile E. Coyote, FutureGen 2.0 was already granted $850,000 earlier this year. That totals $2.17 million in Illinois DCEO funds awarded directly to FutureGen. That number is tiny compared to the billions of dollars in federal support, but that's a topic for another blog.

Shortly before Morgan county was selected for FutureGen 2.0, DCEO gave the Christian County Development Corporation $7,500 to compete for the project. They gave $10,000 to the city of Vandalia to compete against Christian county. Plus $10,000 more to Tuscola. Jacksonville got $18,000 to push for Morgan county. In total, DCEO awarded $45,500 to four communities so they could fight each other for the same project.

The grants provided an inducement for each community to offer the FutureGen Alliance their own package of incentives on top of federal and state dollars. Dividing up the money between competitors, instead of creating a unified state plan, seems like an uncoordinated waste. But, I can't imagine a better way to boost local support, and encourage communities to overlook potential negative impacts of the project, than egging on a competition between small towns desperate for any jobs they can get.

The FutureGen Alliance told communities that cost, including donated land, and an expedited permitting process were important criteria for picking a site. Morgan County helped to find land, just as Coles County had.

A cost not included in these grants is the amount of taxpayer-funded staff time and department resources spent promoting coal to elected officials and economic development bodies. In the case of these plants, many local citizens saw that state employees were using their tax dollars to promote a coal plant they didn't want.

When successes are failures
These failures are in many ways better than OCD's successes. They gave tens of millions to Peabody's new Prairie State coal plant as well. Peabody turned to public bodies to find investors because many private investors were skeptical. They sold municipalities and co-ops on the idea that coal would produce affordable energy and jobs.

The reality turned out to be something else. Illinoisans and residents in seven other states are getting hit with large rate increases because their electrical provider invested in Prairie State. Its completion is long delayed and its costs far over budget.

It's not difficult to convince local officials in Illinois coal country that coal is a cheap fuel source. Peabody was aided by years of state economic development officials preaching the gospel of economic development through cheap coal. When construction on the plant began, Governor Rod Blagojevich bragged, along with the heads of DCEO and the Illinois Finance Authority, about working in partnership with Prairie State.

By subsidizing the plant and helping to promote the promise of cheap coal to local officials, DCEO shares the blame for Prairie State rate hikes. They helped Peabody make the sales pitch for a lemon coal plant.

It's common in coal country to hear talk of clean coal being a "bridge fuel" to use until we can build new energy sources. Wind and solar are already being built on a large scale at competitive prices right now. Clean coal has never been done on a large scale in America and can't compete on its own in the market. It would be more realistic to build wind and solar quickly as a bridge fuel while we wait for the coal industry to pursue their clean coal pipe dreams.

Congressman Kucinich demands investigation of Prairie State coal rate hikes

Many Illinois residents recently got hit with a major utility rate increase, along with 2.5 million other people in eight states. That's because 217 Towns and 17 Coops invested in Peabody's Prairie State coal plant built in Washington county Illinois. According to a new report, electricity from the Prairie State coal power plant will be 40 to 100 percent higher than market rates.

Peabody turned to municipal government investors because private investors saw a new coal plant as too risky. One of those investors is Cleveland Public Power, so Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich is "demanding an investigation from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to protect the ratepayers from the mistakes of Peabody Energy Corporation and the regional power agencies."

Kucinich wrote, “There remain unaddressed fundamental problems with the financial stability and the long-term reliability of the plant. There are further questions about whether the electric rates being charged consumers are fair and reasonable.”

The Illinois Municipal Electric Agency was a major investor, which means member towns such as Naperville, Chatham, Rantoul and others are getting hit with large rate hikes. Members of Illinois co-ops including the Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative in Auburn, the Shelby Electric Co-op, and the Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative were recently sent letters notifying them of upcoming rate increases. The letters I've been shown by members of several co-ops fail to mention that the rate increase is the result of their bad investment in Prairie State.

A co-author of the report stated:

"Elected officials, ratepayers, investors and market regulators should ask this question: Did Peabody Energy disclose everything it could have in terms of the risks, the likely costs, and what would happen to the communities and coops when the coal company offloaded more than nine tenths of its exposure in the project? Our report suggests that the risks were sometimes known and almost always possible to estimate, but that communities, coops and ratepayers were left in the dark. Far from being a low-cost source of energy, the first year cost of power from Prairie State is 40 to 100 percent higher than the current cost of power in the Midwest wholesale markets and is expected to remain higher than market prices for the next 10 to 13 years, if not longer."

It's no wonder that most of Illinois doesn't want to talk about Prairie State coal. Investors are reluctant to admit their mistake, and the state's coal boosters refuse to admit that the promise of clean, cheap coal turned out to be a hoax. I hope Illinois members of Congress will join Kucinich in his call for an investigation to protect ratepayers.

Congressman Shimkus called energy loan guarantees "imperative" before voting against them

House Republicans continue to ignore the American Jobs Act, but they found plenty of time for their ongoing effort to gin up a phony scandal around Solyndra. Today they passed the "No More Solyndras Act," mostly along partly lines. They want to end the Department of Energy loan guarantee program because one solar project failed.

Next month I expect them to pass the "No More Restaurants Act" because O'Boys Bar-B-Q chain in central Florida just closed their final location. Also, the "No More Movies Act" will be voted on in response to "Think of the Cold Light of Day" earning far less at the box office than it cost to make. As long as we're irrationally overrating to minor setbacks, then why not?

Illinois Congressman John Shimkus has been making noise about Solyndra during the House's desperate search for a scandal. He voted for the bill today that would ban the Department of Energy from approving loan guarantee applications filed after 2011. That's an important deadline. It means the act won't apply to a loan guarantee Shimkus enthusiastically supported in 2010 that's five times bigger than Solyndra's.

Shimkus lent his support to a $2.5 Billion DOE loan guarantee for Tenaska's failed coal plant in Taylorville, Illinois. The Taylorville Energy Center is stalled indefinitely after failing to get the special subsidies and fixed rate increases they need from the Illinois legislature. In other words, it's a failed project the market can't support that's far, far more expensive and unrealistic than Solyndra. But, that doesn't register as a scandal to Shimkus and other House Republicans.

Shimkus went beyond giving tepid support for the loan guarantee. He sent a member of his staff, Rodney Davis, to speak in favor of Tenaska's application at a Department of Energy public hearing in Taylorville. In a message about the loan guarantee, he said it's "imperative that we move forward with policies and financial assistance to projects like" the Taylorville Energy Center.

Yes, that's right. Shimkus just voted to end a policy he called "imperative" two years ago when it might have helped a "clean coal" hoax in his district. That double standard is what he calls an "all of the above" energy policy.

Ameren seeks an extra five years of poisoning your lungs

You may not be familiar with the Illinois Pollution Control Board, but they have a lot of power to decide what goes into your lungs. They'll hold a hearing August 1st to consider Ameren's request to renege on a deal the company made to reduce pollution from their aging fleet of Illinois coal plants.

Back in 2006 Ameren Illinois, along with other utilities, agreed to a compromise on new Mercury pollution standards for coal power plants. They would be allowed to follow a less stringent standard on lowering Mercury pollution, and in exchange for that leniency, they agreed to lower levels of other poisonous air pollutants (SO2 and NOx). Ameren helped to negotiate the agreement and celebrated it as a victory for clean air.

Six years later, Ameren has decided that they don't like the deal anymore. They want to continue releasing the higher levels of Mercury pollution but without making the SO2 reductions on the timetable they agreed to. In other words, they want to release more of a pollutant that causes birth defects and learning disabilities in children, AND they also want to release more of a pollutant that causes asthma attacks and aggravates heart disease.

It must be because they love their customers so much!

An objection filed by several environmental groups put it this way: "Ameren now wants to have its cake and eat it, too; it reaped the benefit of less stringent mercury standards for years but wants that benefit without meeting the prescribed SO2 limits."

Ameren opted into the agreement that required reductions of SO2 in 2015 and 2017. Now, they're proposing a five year delay to 2020 and 2021. Those far-off dates are additionally significant because there's no certainty that all of Ameren's aging Illinois coal fleet will remain in operation that long.

All of the reasons why Ameren seeks an extension for reducing SO2 (low energy prices, new federal regulation, cost of compliance, competition from natural gas) are also reasons why they may choose to retire additional plants within the next five to ten years. It's fair to ask Ameren whether they will continue seeking extensions in an effort to run out the clock and avoid making new investments in their outdated plants before shutting them down.

If Ameren does choose to install pollution controls, there's a good chance Illinois taxpayers will pick up part of the tab. The Coal Development Fund of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity brags of having the largest coal subsidy program of any state in the nation. Ameren has a long history of asking Illinois taxpayers to help pay for the cost of doing business, while Ameren keeps the profit for themselves. For example, Ameren received $850,000 in 2002 to reduce SO2 at their Coffeen plant.

Ameren claims poverty but they're really making a choice about their priorities. They're choosing to prioritize short-term profit over public safety. They're deciding that paying stock dividends is more important than reducing the number of asthma attacks their plants cause. That reducing birth defects and learning disabilities in newborns is less important than pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into their political funds every year. That keeping outdated coal plants running for a few more years is a better option than building new clean energy sources that won't contribute to climate change. Those choices reveal their values and priorities as a company.

Environmental groups are especially concerned about this case because it could set a precedent for other coal plant operators making the same request to delay installing pollution controls they previously agreed to.

You can let the Pollution Control Board know you want them to force Ameren to stick to their agreement at a public hearing Wednesday, August 1, 10:00am, in the Illinois Pollution Control Board Hearing Room, 1021 N. Grand Avenue East, North Entrance, Springfield. You can also submit comments as a member of the public if you can't attend the hearing. If you're in Chicago you can even take a bus ride to the hearing with Greenpeace and ELPC.

The decision on Ameren's request will have a major impact on whether Illinois embraces a clean energy future. Now is the time to speak up!

IEPA denies Power Holdings permit extension request

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency denied a request by Power Holdings for an extension of their expired permit to build a coal-to-gas plant. A letter from the company requesting the extension failed to justify their delay or provide the technical information IEPA needed.

If the company chooses to move forward with the project in the future, they would have to begin the permitting process over again, including public review and the appeals process.

Combined with their recent statement about failing to find new investors, it looks as though this project is dead.

Power Holdings coal-to-gas plant calls it quits over lack of investors, customers

Proponents of another so-called clean coal plant are calling it quits due to a lack of investors and a failure to find anyone interested in buying their product. The plant would have converted coal to synthetic natural gas, at prices far above actual natural gas.

Some Illinois natural gas suppliers refused to enter contracts with Power Holdings, despite facing the consequence of increased regulatory oversight. The Chicago Tribune reported on a statement from the company.

"Given the current unprecedented low price for natural gas, Aurora-based Power Holdings, like other new energy development projects, is finding capital markets hesitant to provide funding," the company said in a statement.

It's no surprise that they couldn't find new investors. Myself and local opponents told them as much back in March in news coverage about their expired EPA permit.

“It appears that this is not a serious project,” stated Will Reynolds. “This project has been seeking investors since 2007. Southern Illinois needs real clean energy jobs and not false hope from this April Fools coal plant.”

The project was proposed on the border of rural Jefferson county, which also got the good news today that their unemployment rate is dropping. Now, the area can focus on more serious job creation strategies instead of waiting on the empty promise of a coal based economy.

Power Holdings previously sent a letter to Illinois EPA requesting an extension of their construction permit. Sierra Club argues that extending an expired permit would violate the law, and as of today, IEPA has taken no action on the company's request.

This needless plant would have added harmful pollutants to the region and destroyed the rural character of a community. The announcement by Power Holdings is a victory for the environment, Illinois ratepayers, and locals trying to save their community!

Toons for Tenaska

Two cartoons recently reminded me of Tenaska's coal plant proposed in Taylorville, Illinois.

The first is a t-shirt I bought at threadless called Greenwashing. It's a coal plant pretending to be green!



It must be saying, "Clean coal really does exist! Please believe me!"

On facebook I discovered that Tenaska bases their business model on an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. It perfectly describes the Taylorville Energy Center!



Dirty project. No customer demand or need. Refusal to put carbon sequestration in their EPA permit. Looking for massive government subsidies. All check.
All they demand is monstrous profits guaranteed by the state of Illinois. Sadly, Illinois consumers wouldn't have the right to walk away from this lemon if the General Assembly passes Tenaska's subsidy bill.

Where will CO2 from the proposed Taylorville coal plant really go?

The coal plant proposed in Taylorville by Tenaska is being called a clean coal facility. So, how much global-warming-causing CO2 will it add to the atmosphere? It depends on who you ask and what day you're asking.

The company is telling the legislature it will capture CO2. But, their new permit filed with EPA doesn't include CO2 limits. Once again, they're seeking to avoid binding commitments on how much will be captured and stored underground.

The carbon sequestration aspect of this plant is getting the most attention. But, there are several other places CO2 from the plant will go.

Some CO2 will be released into the air when they're using coal to make synthetic natural gas.
Some CO2 will be sold for Enhanced Oil Recovery operations, which will then cause more to be released in the atmosphere.
More will be released when they're burning Synthetic Natural Gas for electricity production.
And even more when their Synthetic Natural Gas is sold on the market and burned by someone else.

Taken together this would put over 6.5 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. That's more than what's being released by CWLP's new conventional coal plant in Springfield.

Clean coal is a myth.

Locking in a 30 years mistake in Taylorville.

Tenaska is making yet another push for their so-called clean coal plant proposed in Taylorville. They need the legislature to give the plant special help because it's not economically viable in a competitive energy market.

Last year, Tenaska threatened that they would abandon the project if the General Assembly didn't quickly approve their bill. But, like a Kiss farewell tour, they keep coming back no matter how many times we think it's over.

The biggest special favor Tenaska demands is mandatory thirty-year contracts at a rate which guarantees their profits. Nearly all Illinois utilities will be forced to participate and rate increases will be passed on to their customers. It's socialism for the company, which gets guaranteed profits, while us taxpayers assume all the financial risk.

The Illinois legislature is being pressured to pass this bill because it will create temporary jobs for a few years while the plant is built. Even after those jobs are long gone, the state will be forced to carry the burden of overpriced, dirty power for the nest 30 years.

It's important to consider that the Illinois Commerce Commission study determined that the proposed Taylorville plant would produce some of the most expensive energy on the market, costing even more than current wind power prices. Will overpriced power from this plant still make sense 10, 25, or 30 years from now after wind and solar come down even further in cost?

It's amazing how far a bad idea can go when it's being pushed by every other lobbyist in town. Burdening the next generation with a 30-year mistake would rank as one of the legislature's most short sighted failures.

Ameren to close two deadly Illinois coal dinosaurs

Ameren announced that it will close two of its oldest, deadliest plants in Meredosia and Hutsonville, Illinois. Ameren is blaming EPA's new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) that regulates sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx). The rule will force the oldest, dirtiest coal plants in America to either clean up their act or shut down. Apparently, it's working already.

Despite making billions of dollars in profits, Ameren refused to update pollution controls on these plants for decades. Failure to control their sulfur pollution is why Ameren plants import coal from out of state rather than using Illinois coal. The Meredosia plant imports coal from mountaintop removal mining operators.

Mary Anne Hitt wrote in her blog that the Cross State Air Pollution Rule is designed to prevent soot and smog pollution that contributes to health hazards like asthma attacks and heart attacks. EPA estimates that in just the first two years of enforcement, these protections will save up to 34,000 lives, prevent more than 19,000 emergency room visits, prevent 1.8 million missed work and school days and improve the lives of millions.

I'm glad to see Ameren's press release express their "regret" for the impact the closures will have on the economy of these two communities. I have yet to see Ameren express regret for premature deaths and other health impacts they inflicted on Illinois communities for decades by refusing to install basic pollution controls on their coal plants.

Illinois residents have suffered for the sake of Ameren's quarterly profit margin. Closing these dirty coal dinosaurs is the right decision.

Prairie State coal plant investors hit with sticker shock. Will they stop making bad bets on coal?

Peabody sold investors on the Prairie State Energy Campus with the lure of coal as a cheap energy source. Reality hit when the plant's construction costs more than doubled and investors were asked to shoulder the burden.

That resulted in price hikes for customers of utilities who invested in Prairie State. One of the biggest is the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency (IMEA) based in Springfield. The cost of expensive coal will be passed on to IMEA customers like the cities of Naperville, Chatham and the Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative based in Auburn.

These rate hikes offer an occasion for suppliers like IMEA to reevaluate their investment in coal. The cost of operating coal plants will only go up as EPA moves forward on new clean air and water rules. That will happen even if Congress doesn't put an additional price on carbon, which would make coal even less attractive. Coal based utilities will be forced to internalize the cost of their pollution instead of forcing everyone else to pay for their mess. The promise of cheap coal is a relic of the past.

Unfortunately, IMEA and it's partners like the American Public Power Association have chosen to act as puppets of the coal industry's legislative agenda. They work hand in hand with industry polluters to fight against regulations that protect public health and the environment. Customers should be aware that if your town or co-op is as member of IMEA or APPA then you're supporting the coal industry's campaign to demonize the EPA.

I'm sure the coal industry appreciates the loyalty of public utilities but procrastinating the transition to clean energy will only hurt their customers in the long run. It's time for providers like IMEA to reconsider whether marrying their fate to coal is really in their best interests.

The Last Mountain and Dirty Business showing in Springfield and Taylorville

Sierra Club Sangamon Valley Group is hosting three energy movie screenings this month!

First, a campus screening of The Last Mountain, Wednesday, September 21, 7:00, at Lincoln Land Community College, Stephens Room.

The fight for the last great mountain in America's Appalachian heartland pits the mining giant that wants to explode it to extract the coal within, against the community fighting to preserve the mountain and build a wind farm on its ridges instead. With Bobby Kennedy Jr. enlisted as a passionate force for preserving Coal River Mountain and the economic power of the fossil fuel industry twisting democracy to its advantage THE LAST MOUNTAIN highlights a battle for the future of energy that affects us all.

"Dirty Business: Clean Coal and the Battle for our Energy Future" will be shown in both Taylorville and Springfield.

In Taylorville Thursday, September 22, 6:00 at the Taylorville Public Library, 121 W. Vine St.

Then in Springfield Tuesday, September 27, 6:00 at Lincoln Library, Carnegie Room.

Half our electricity comes from coal, the largest single source of greenhouse gases. But it doesn't have to be that way. Featuring stories from China to West Virginia, Dirty Business reveals the true social and environmental costs of coal power and explores the murky realities of "clean coal" technology. Guided by Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Goodell, the film highlights the work of energy innovators and the viable, renewable alternatives they offer in an age of rapid climate change.

Southern Illinois University students reject clean coal myth

The Daily Egyptian has an excellent article about Southern Illinois University at Carbondale student groups that are ready for their campus to move beyond coal. They're asking SIUC to shut down their aging coal plant and replace it with clean energy sources. This campus in the heart of Illinois coal country hosts a coal research center, but judging by the quotes in this article, many students aren't buying the myth of clean coal.

Ruby Roknic, President of Eco Dawgs, said the RSO’s primary focus is to educate students on the effects of dirty energy, such as coal, versus clean energy options, such as solar or wind power.

Roknic, a sophomore from La Grange Park studying civil engineering, said this is important so the university can shift to a clean energy path.

Coal plants negatively affect the environment by causing effects such as increased mercury levels in lakes that prevent people from fishing or even swimming in them, said Cheyenne Adams, a member of Eco Dawgs.

Adams, a sophomore from Bloomington studying zoology, said the group will focus this semester on other impacts the coal plant has on the university besides providing power, such as the adverse health effects on students from having a coal plant on campus.

When I was a student there, I used to walk by the coal plant every day since it's located near several dorms at the center of campus. There's no doubt that the campus community is exposed to pollutants.



Southern is already behind Illinois' other public universities. Eastern replaced their coal unit with a biomass steam boiler. The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana announced plans to retire their campus coal plant. Western switched to natural gas for financial reasons, explaining that “putting money into the existing coal boilers is putting money into a system that is becoming obsolete on many levels.”

Be sure to read the full article for comments from an Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesperson that are refreshingly honest compared to what I'm used to hearing the agency's mining office say about coal.

SIUC's campus plant and coal research center are popular with fossil fuel industry executives. But, I suspect they'll find their ties to coal will increasingly become a liability with student groups, prospective students, and others who realize that there's no future in a 19th century energy source.

Coal gasification plant overruns exceed $1 billion

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.

Shazam! Sierra Club and Bloomberg showed us the future of the climate change movement

Mayor Michael Bloomberg just gave $50 million to the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. It was already the biggest, baddest thing happening in the grassroots movement to confront climate change. Now it's going to explode.

The coal industry may soon wish it had supported the failed cap-and-trade bill which was loaded with coal subsidies. The alternative will be something they like even less.

Here's how I see Americans dealing with the largest source of man-made global warming emissions as long as Congress fails to act:

1) A series of EPA regulations being introduced now will increase the cost of running the oldest, dirties coal plants. The industry will be forced to either internalize the true cost of their pollution, or shut their oldest plants down. They will no longer be allowed to act like a bad neighbor who throws their polluting trash in your yard instead of paying for their own garbage pickup.

2) The stimulus bill made huge investments in renewable energy. There needs to be another round of investment, such as Obama's proposal to divert oil industry tax breaks into clean energy.

3) Utility companies will face a grassroots movement pushing them to speed up the transition to modern, clean sources of power.

The fossil fuel Senate's failure to vote on a cap-and-trade bill during Obama's first two years in office was deeply disappointing. But, plan B may prove to be even more effective and it won't involve big giveaways to coal operators.

The Sierra Club coal campaign already helped stop the construction of over 150 new coal power plants. It has shifted to shutting down the oldest, dirtiest coal plants that are the biggest contributors to climate change and negative public health impacts. The Sierra Club's grassroots movement will grow, state by state and plant by dirty plant.

If you live in a state with many aging coal plants, then don't be surprised to see citizens calling for them to be replaced with clean energy. If you run a coal-dependent utility then start thinking about what you'll do next when your dirtiest plants become more expensive to operate.

This is the future. Get ready.

Polluting plant retires t-shirt

My latest threadless t-shirt was popular at the Sierra Club Illinois Chapter meeting.





The closed plant seems pretty happy about not polluting anymore. It's called "Just quit smoking."

Visiting the Greenhouse Rebellion on WDBX

I'm passing through Southern Illinois Monday, so why not go on the radio to talk about the coal industry? I'll be on the first hour of Greenhouse Rebellion on Carbondale's WDBX Monday morning. Talking about coal is always more fun in the heart of Illinois coal country.