'Clean coal': Law could open door to new generation of coal-burning power plants: $18 million to fund studies for proposed Downstate facility

'Clean coal': Law could open door to new generation of coal-burning power plants: $18 million to fund studies for proposed Downstate facility

Jan 13 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Michael Hawthorne Chicago Tribune

As President-elect Barack Obama vows to curb pollution linked to global climate change, Illinois is moving closer to building a new power plant that could be a showcase for burning dirty-but-plentiful coal more cleanly.

Under legislation Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law Monday, the state will provide $18 million for studies that would lay the groundwork for the plant, proposed for a site near Downstate Taylorville.

The plant, to be built by Tenaska Inc. and MDL Holding Co. about 25 miles southeast of Springfield, would be the nation's first large-scale test of technology that captures heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Half of its emissions would either be injected deep underground or piped to oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

Compared with conventional coal plants, the Taylorville plant would emit less smog-forming chemicals and other harmful byproducts, including mercury. It also would produce less coal ash, the toxic stuff that recently spilled from holding ponds near two Tennessee plants.

If the project goes forward, ComEd and other power companies would be required to buy up to 5 percent of their electricity from the new plant. The new law also requires any new coal plant built in Illinois after 2017 to store at least 90 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions.

"This puts Illinois at the forefront of clean energy," said Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, who brokered a deal on the bill signed by Blagojevich. "That's where the entire country needs to move."

Burning coal is the most carbon-intensive way to generate electricity, and many experts say that dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require greater reliance on wind power, solar energy and other renewable sources.

But coal is relatively inexpensive, at least for now, and the coal industry remains politically influential in a number of states. The Taylorville project represents a chance to help revive Illinois' beleaguered coal industry.

As a candidate, Obama promised to boost funding for research into ways to burn coal without all the nasty byproducts. The goal, he said, is to build five demonstration plants that capture carbon dioxide emissions and pump them deep underground, a process known as carbon sequestration.

Though coal companies and utilities have held up sequestration as the holy grail of "clean coal" for years, there still hasn't been a full-scale test of the technology. And even if carbon capture and storage works, most energy experts say, it will take decades to employ it at the scale necessary to significantly affect emissions.

Indeed, though Illinois' proposed coal plant would emit less carbon dioxide than conventional power plants, it still would increase the overall amount of greenhouse gases the state produces.

It's possible an expensive price tag could end up thwarting the project.

Skyrocketing construction costs already have scuttled many other proposed coal plants, including the federally supported FutureGen project near Downstate Mattoon. Like the proposed Taylorville plant, FutureGen was hailed as a model for keeping coal viable in a carbon-constrained world.

"Can coal interests actually address their massive contributions to climate change? And can they do so economically?" said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's National Coal Campaign. "Those are two major questions that remain unanswered."

mhawthorne@tribune.com