After encountering a buzz saw of local opposition and growing public concerns about global warming pollution Indeck Energy has abandoned its plans to build a large coal-fired power plant in the Village of Elwood, Illinois, 50 miles south of the Chicago Loop. Indeck Energy failed to renew their lease for the proposed site, effectively ending a 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 alone, plans for fifty-five new coal fired plants have been defeated or abandoned in the US - four in the past three weeks.

“Since there are cleaner sources of energy available, and Indeck’s outdated proposal would have worsened both conventional air pollution and accelerated global warming.”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. 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“The writing is on the wall – the dirty and outdated technologies that increase global warming pollution are no longer acceptable sources of energy,” says Verena Owen of Sierra Club, “Indeck’s decision to abandon coal is coming at the same time that other companies are embracing wind and solar energy here in Illinois.”

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. 

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 (200MW) under construction in the City of Springfield, and that project only went forward after the City and Sierra Club reached a landmark pollution reduction agreement. Two other coal plants are on hold because of litigation by Sierra Club (Enviropower’s Benton plant and Tenaska’s Taylorville plant). The third project – Peabody Energy’s massive 1500MW coal plant proposal southeast of St. Louis – is mired in controversy over its water and mining permits. The Peabody coal plant proposal would be the largest new source of global warming pollution constructed in the United States in over two decades.