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For Immediate Release from the Sierra Club, Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago January 1, 2008
Indeck Energy Dumps Coal Plant: Global Warming and Public Health Concerns PrevailAfter encountering a buzz saw of local opposition and growing public concerns about global warming pollution Indeck Energy became the latest US energy company to abandons plans for a new coal plant. For four years Indeck had been trying to build a large coal-fired power plant in the Village of Elwood, Illinois, 50 miles south of the Chicago Loop, but had been stymied repeatedly by lawsuits and public concerns about air pollution. In the past week Indeck Energy failed to renew its lease for the proposed site, effectively drawing the curtain on the protracted four-year controversy. Indeck’s decision to abandon its coal plant plans is the latest showing of a major shift in public opinion on energy choices. Across the country citizens, local governments and states are saying no to coal and yes to clean energy. In 2007 plans for fifty-five new coal fired plants have been defeated or abandoned in the US - four in the past three weeks alone. “Since there are cleaner sources of energy available, and Indeck’s outdated proposal would have worsened both conventional air pollution and accelerated global warming.” says Brian Urbaszewski, Director of Environmental Health Programs, Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago. “It should have no place in Illinois’ energy future.” After Indeck received an air permit in 2003, the project has been plagued with controversy and state politics have continued to move away from more coal development and toward clean energy alternatives. The project had been opposed by a broad coalition of public health and environmental organizations, as well as the downwind City of Chicago. In 2007 the Illinois legislature adopted a clean energy standard that will require 25% of Illinois’ electricity come from renewable sources by the year 2025 and Governor Blagojevich announced a global warming task force that is finalizing recommendations for Illinois to slash global warming emissions statewide. According to the Blue Green Alliance, by moving away from coal and into modern and cleaner electricity options Illinois could gain as 50,000 new jobs in solar and wind development. “The writing is on the wall – the dirty and outdated technologies that increase global warming pollution are no longer acceptable sources of energy,” says Verena Owen of the Sierra Club, “Indeck’s decision to abandon coal comes at the same time that other companies are embracing wind and solar energy here in Illinois, and we are creating family-supporting clean energy jobs that don’t jeopardize our children’s future and don’t accelerate global warming. Over the past four years as we have helped to defeat more than a dozen dirty and expensive coal plant proposals, the state has seen a boom in clean wind energy development, including the construction of one of the Nation’s largest wind farms north of Bloomington.” Background: The proposed Indeck-Energy coal plant has been mired in controversy for over four years. When Illinois EPA issued the draft permit in 2003, a broad coalition of national and local groups urged the state to consider cleaner, safer options for electricity generation. Local residents testified that the plant threatened the adjacent Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley weighed in, urging the State to consider cleaner technologies as a way to protect downwind Chicago residents. When the State rejected these concerns and issued the final air permit in October 2003, a coalition of groups including Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago (formerly known as American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago. RHAMC ended its affiliation with American Lung Association on July 1, 2007), Clean Air Task Force, Citizens Against Ruining the Environment (CARE), Lake County Conservation Alliance and Sierra Club appealed the permit. In September 2006, the US Environmental Appeals Board remanded the permit, ruling that the State had failed to ensure that the proposed coal plant installed modern pollution controls and protected the adjacent Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Over the past four months Indeck had tried to revive its project, but finally pulled the plug and decided last week to not renew its lease on the site of the proposed plant. At the height of the state’s coal revival program in 2004, as many as 17 coal plants were proposed in Illinois. The majority of these have been defeated or abandoned in the face of public opposition and impending global warming regulation. There is currently only one small coal plant (250MW) under construction in the City of Springfield, and that project only proceeded after the City and the Sierra Club reached a landmark pollution reduction agreement. Two other coal plants are on hold for the foreseeable future because of Sierra Club lawsuits (Enviropower’s Benton plant and Tenaska’s Taylorville plant). A fourth project – Peabody Energy’s massive 1500MW coal plant proposal southeast of St. Louis – is mired in controversy over its water and mining permits. If constructed, the Peabody coal plant proposal would be the largest new source of global warming pollution constructed in the United States in over two decades. Contact:
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