Apr 25 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Thomas Content Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Sierra Club and an Indiana-based environmental group have filed suit to overturn Wisconsin Public Power Inc.'s plan to buy electricity from a new coal-fired power plant planned for southwestern Illinois.

Sun Prairie-based WPPI should be looking to non-polluting options, such as efficiency and renewable energy, Sierra Club spokesman Bruce Nilles said Monday. Sierra was joined in the suit Valley Watch of Evansville, Ind.

The state Public Service Commission ruled last month that WPPI's plan to buy power from Peabody Energy's Prairie State coal-fired power plant would be less expensive than other options, because there would be no coal transportation charges. That's because the plant is located adjacent to a coal mine.

WPPI is also a partner in the coal-fired power plants now under construction in Oak Creek, as well as the Forward Wind Energy Center planned in Fond du Lac and Dodge counties. WPPI is a statewide power company serving 40 municipal utilities.

Nilles said the Sierra Club was concerned that the commission's review of the matter didn't take into account the cost associated with potential regulations to limit emissions of carbon dioxide.

"Here we're doing something that will exacerbate global warming pollution and send ratepayer money out of state to southern Illinois," he said.

Mike Stuart, senior vice president of WPPI, said the company is confident the PSC's review of the case was proper.

Stuart said it's impossible to quantify what the cost of carbon limits would be, since there are no such rules in place, and there are many options being considered for how to impose them.

In a statement, PSC spokeswoman Linda Barth said the commission is confident that its decision will be upheld in Dane County Circuit Court. Nilles said he was disappointed that the commission authorized more coal-fired power less than a week after Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a bill to boost the state's use of non-polluting renewable electricity from wind turbines and solar panels.