Coal plant a step ahead to cleaner air
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial

June 10, 2007 – CHICAGO, ILL. - "The future of clean air starts now," said Doug Scott, director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, after the approval of plans to build near Springfield the first large-scale commercial plant in the country to utilize an electricity-generating coal gasification process -- one that will dramatically reduce smog and mercury pollution. Everyone's for clean air, including President Bush, who at the Group of Eight meeting took his late push for it to a new level by agreeing to consider a European plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050; Gov. Blagojevich, who has pushed for tough new mercury emissions standards in Illinois, and both the city and state, which passed sweeping smoking bans. But as long as power companies resist spending money to overhaul their aging plants and switch from conventional coal-burning methods, we have to take statements like Scott's with a grain of salt -- or a speck of coal.

That's not to say that the future that the IEPA envisions -- one in which it would take a full year for the $2 billion, 630-megawatt Taylorville Energy Center to match the amount of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pumped into the air by conventional plants in two weeks -- isn't within our grasp. Being that gasification plants can use Illinois coal -- this one would use 1.5 million tons -- utilities that switched to low-sulfur Western coal can give the local economy a boost by switching back. But there are major obstacles to overcome for these clean-air dreams to become reality.

Gasification supporters are counting on the passage of a bill now being floated in Springfield that would require utilities to buy at least 5 percent of their electricity from gasification plants on a long-term basis. Though Commonwealth Edison hasn't yet said yes or no to the proposal, we could see imposing that requirement for a limited period in the early going as a way of getting this program up and running (2012 is the target date for the TEC opening). But if the Taylorville plant, to be built by Christian County Generation, and others aren't able to stand on their own after that initial period, what would be the point of giving them this early boost?
There's also the nagging problem that carbon dioxide emissions, which can be captured by gasification technology, would remain at the usual levels. What to do about them? One industry solution is "carbon sequestration," pumping them underground and permanently trapping them in sandstone formations. That's already being done with natural gas. So why not do it with this plant? Especially because its purpose is to demonstrate clean air technology.

None of this should distract from efforts to exploit renewable energy sources. As quaint as wind and solar power may seem, there are great possibilities in them, as recognized by another piece of legislation that would require 10 percent of the state's electricity to come from these sources by 2015. In a kind of ecological convergence, the Taylorville facility will be built among cornfields, a promising new source of energy. Whichever way the wind blows on gasification, it's clear that, finally, most Americans are on board for cleaner air, and momentum is building to make that a top priority.

----------

<<< back