After nine long years fighting to stop the proposed Leucadia coal gasification plant in Rockport, Indiana, local activists are celebrating a huge victory. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management canceled the project’s permit on March 5 -- effectively pulling the plug on this expensive and hazardous project.
The project carried tremendous risks for local ratepayers beyond the obvious air quality and public health implications. The State of Indiana entered into a long-term contract to purchase all the synthetic gas produced by the proposed plant and pipe it to Indiana natural gas customers -- with Indiana customers assuming all the risk if the gas cost more than market prices. A coalition of organizations including the Sierra Club labeled this state-sanctioned gamble the "Leucadia Tax" and fought it all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court.
"This announcement is fantastic news for Spencer County residents," said Chuck Botsko, below, a Rockport resident who has been fighting the project since it was first announced. "For Spencer County, it was always about protecting our community from the dirty, polluting plant Leucadia was trying to bring here. With the help of a broad coalition of groups including Valley Watch and the Sierra Club, we finally did it."
Punkie and Chuck Bostko, residents of Rockport, Indiana.
Local groups helped lead the campaign, including Spencer County Citizens for Life, Valley Watch and Citizens Action Coalition, AARP Indiana, Indiana NAACP, Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light, the Indiana Community Action Association (INCAA), the Indiana Coalition for Human Services, League of Women Voters, the Distributed Energy Alliance, and others. With the support of this powerful coalition of grassroots organizations, the Sierra Club was able to reach every legislative district in Indiana with its message, leading the Indiana General Assembly to pass legislation in 2013 requiring that the contract go through additional review at the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
Coal gasification is a largely untested and expensive technology that converts coal into a product known as synthetic natural gas. By relying on coal as a fuel source, the Rockport coal gasification plant would have prolonged the destructive practices of the coal industry that Hoosier families have been subject to for too long. This includes the mining and burning of coal, which threatens air and water with toxic pollution like mercury. Rockport, which was the site for the proposed plant, is already home to one of the nation’s dirtiest polluters. According to the Clean Air Task Force, the Rockport coal-fired power plant operated by Indiana-Michigan Power Co. contributes to 140 deaths, 210 heart attacks, and 2,300 asthma attacks each year. Building a new coal gasification plant would have exacerbated the already severe public health threats in the Rockport community.
Learn more about the Sierra Club's work to move America beyond coal.