A letter to the Chicago Tribune: Clean Coal Plant
By BART FORD, Vice President of Tenaska

June 19, 2008 – OMAHA, NE - Your story on the declining use of coal plants asserts that Tenaska, the developer of a proposed clean coal plant in Downstate Taylorville, has "ruled out" installing technology that would capture carbon dioxide emissions.

That is incorrect.

As Tenaska's lead executive on this project, I have said repeatedly that we would be willing to capture a large portion of the plant's carbon pollution, resulting in the cleanest coal plant in the world. That's why the proposed Taylorville Energy Center enjoys the support not just of expected allies like labor unions and the Illinois Coal Association but also the Clean Air Task Force and the American Lung Association of Illinois.

In fact, as part of legislation brokered with the offices of Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and Speaker Michael Madigan, Tenaska specifically agreed to match the environmental profile of a natural gas-fired plant by capturing and sequestering more than 50 percent of our carbon emissions. Unfortunately, in the face of intense lobbying pressure from Commonwealth Edison, the Illinois House narrowly failed to pass this legislation.

Unless state lawmakers change their minds, the Taylorville Energy Center—and the benefits it would bring to consumers, the economy and the environment—may not become a reality.

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