Chicago, IL – A coalition of public health and conservation groups is lodging an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago requesting that it strike down the air permit issued by the State of Illinois to Peabody Energy for the construction of a massive 1500 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Washington County, Illinois. The groups’ appeal challenges the state’s failure to require Peabody to use cleaner technology and minimize the air pollution impacts on the adjacent Greater St. Louis area, an area already violating federal health-based air quality standards.

“If constructed, this one power plant would dump 12,000,000 tons of global warming pollution (the equivalent of adding 2.2 million cars onto our highways) every year at a time we need to be cutting, not increasing our global warming pollution,” said Verena Owen, of the Sierra Club. “This project will accelerate global warming, undermine the efforts in other states to cut global warming pollution, and contribute to a climate crisis for our children.”   

John Blair, president of Indiana’s Valley Watch, underscored the financial risk this project poses to the mainly small municipal utilities and cooperatives that Peabody is courting to invest in the project. “All industry analysts agree that during the 30-year lifetime of this power plant the United States will begin to combat global warming. Because there are no cost-effective ways to cut global warming pollution from the type of outdated power plant Peabody is proposing, the only option to cut global warming emissions would be to close the power plant. This could spell financial disaster for unsuspecting city councils and municipal utility boards,” said Blair.

Today’s appeal is the latest in a string of challenges Peabody has encountered. This controversial project is being opposed by a broad coalition of organizations across the Midwest. The coalition’s members have successfully blocked the construction of three other coal plants in Illinois. For example, earlier this month U.S. District Court Judge Phil Gilbert of the Southern District of Illinois agreed with the Sierra Club and enjoined the construction of a proposed coal plant in Franklin County until the developer obtained a new and more protective air permit.   

“We are appealing this out-dated and dangerous project because there are cleaner and safer energy options that don’t threaten our health,” said Kathleen Logan Smith of Health and Environmental Justice--St. Louis. “We can and must do more to protect our most vulnerable residents.”

“At greatest risk from Peabody’s proposed pollution are our young children living in the Greater St. Louis area, particularly those already suffering from asthma and other respiratory ailments,” said Kathy Andria, president of American Bottom Conservancy. “This coal plant would have 700-foot smoke stacks and be located less than 2 miles from the edge of the Greater St. Louis metro area, an area already violating federal health-based air quality standards for soot and smog.”

Specifically, the State-issued permit allows Peabody to dump the following pollution across the region (from their permit):

• 280 pounds of mercury annually -- a toxic heavy metal that can cause brain damage to a developing fetus, babies and young children and is already at harmful levels in every Illinois lake, river and stream;
• Nearly 12,000 tons of sulfur dioxide annually -- a pollutant that creates haze, acid rain and fine particles that contribute to cardiac and respiratory diseases;
• More than 7,500 tons of carbon monoxide annually – a pollutant that causes serious health problems;
• More than 4,500 tons of nitrogen oxides annually -- a pollutant that causes smog, acid rain, and contributes to asthma attacks and other breathing problems;
• More than 3,000 tons of direct particulate matter – a pollutant that contributes to cardiac and respiratory disease; and
• Twelve millions tons of carbon dioxide annually -- the primary greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

“This year, U.S. EPA declared that two thirds of all Illinois residents are living in areas that fail to meet minimal health standards for airborne fine particulate soot,” said Brian Urbaszewski of the American Lung Association of Chicago. “The failure of the State of Illinois to require Peabody to minimize air pollution emissions will mean thousands of tons of additional tiny soot particles will be pumped into the air we all breathe. Such particles lodge deep in our lungs where they trigger asthma attacks, increasing emergency room visits for breathing problems, and even the number of premature deaths.”