IGCC plant would cause a net decrease in Illinois’ CO2 emissions of about 1.9 million metric tons each year.
Chicago-area electricity provider Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) disputes Tenaska’s emission figures, arguing that the company should include certain related offsite emissions in its calculations. The company points to an air separation unit used in the gasification process that Tenaska plans on contracting to an outside provider. The unit is integral to the gasification process but produces no emissions on site. It does, however, use electricity from other power plants, which means it is responsible for some CO2 emissions created elsewhere in Illinois.
The Sierra Club’s Clayborn says Tenaska’s belief that older, dirtier coal-fired power plants will shut down is opinion, not fact. “You can’t guarantee those closures,” she says.
ComEd also takes issue with the facility’s use of outside natural gas for start-up and back-up fuel. “Because of the heavy reliance on natural gas as a fuel for the project, we do question whether or not it still meets the definition of a clean coal facility,” William McNeil, ComEd vice president of energy acquisition, told the ICC.
Tenaska turbulence
Although the for-profit Taylorville Energy Center and another coal-to-gas proposal, the experimental and federally backed FutureGen, are two separate projects with different forces shaping their futures, recent changes to FutureGen plans, which until two weeks ago named Mattoon as the project site, have Taylorville city officials on edge.
“This is the state of Illinois, and what happened in Mattoon is a little scary,” Mayor Greg Brotherton says. “Until dirt is being turned, we’re not going to count our chickens.”
His cautious optimism is a sentiment that’s proliferated throughout the community – from the good old boys in the corner coffee shop to the head of the town’s coal mine museum. After all, Taylorville has been courted, and dumped, by coal projects a time or two before.
Mary Renner, director of the Christian County Economic Development Corporation, which fully supports Tenaska’s proposed project, says any major development project is bound to be “a roller coaster ride.” Considering what’s at stake, the long timeline of the Taylorville Energy Center’s development is to be expected, she says. “This one is exceptional because it’s such a state-of-the-art thing. There are so many elements to it that the fact that it has taken probably close to 10 years is not surprising.”
Still, Renner adds, “Anything can happen.”
Contact Rachel Wells at [email protected].
