by Jill Miller, Conservation Organizer
Should Missouri’s municipal public utilities risk buying electricity from a controversial, high-polluting, non-union coal-fired power plant in Illinois that threatens a National Wildlife Refuge—when far better options abound?
The Sierra Club and AFL-CIO expressed strong concerns about Peabody’s proposed Prairie State coal plant to the Missouri Public Utilities Alliance in early December.
Peabody Corporation, headquartered in St. Louis, wants to build a large (1,500-Megawatt) coal-burning facility in Washington County, Illinois, about 55 miles southeast of St. Louis. The Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the plant would have an “adverse impact” on the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in the Missouri bootheel. The determination is rare. Only three such determinations on power plants have been made in the last twenty years. At the core of the problem is Peabody’s insistence on using conventional coal-burning technology. Had Peabody opted to gasify the coal using Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology, emissions from the proposed plant would be cut to a fraction. Another proposed plant in Illinois has elected to use IGCC technology. Its sulfur dioxide emission rate is one-fifth of Peabody’s level. Peabody needs, among other things, to lure electric utility customers from other states into buying power from Prairie State. Some municipal members of the
Missouri Public Utilities Alliance have already agreed to purchase 100 MW, and cities like Columbia, Missouri are being approached. The city of Batavia, Illinois recently decided to hold off purchasing electricity from Prairie State after learning that less risky options may be available.
Missouri’s municipal utilities should consider cleaner, more cost-effective, responsible sources of electricity than Peabody’s risky Prairie State generating plant. Learn more by visitinghttp://missouri.sierraclub.org or http://illinois.sierraclub.org and clicking on Clean Air. To get involved, contact Ozark Chapter energy chair Wallace McMullen at (573) 636-6067, or Jill Miller at (314) 645-2032.