Tenaska’s Taylorville Energy Center Bill
November 17, 2011
UPDATE
Tenaska’S Taylorville Energy Center SB678 Consideration Postponed in the Senate on November 8th.
Despite a failed vote for this Central Illinois power plant back in October, Senate President Johnk Cullerton, the bill’s sponsor, filed a motion for reconsideration and pulled the failed vote from the record. Subsequent consideration was then postponed in the Veto Session but the measure is expected to come up again.
Coal gasification plant proponents claim that these facilities capture and secure carbon while supplying energy and creating jobs. Opponents of the bill counter by saying that consumers will have to foot the bill for energy that is expensive and that nSenate President John Cullerton is sponsoring the proposal. He pulled the failed vote from the record so it is likely to come up again.
November 7, 2011
ACTION
Contact your state senator to VOTE NO on SB678 Taylorville Energy Center Bill and to make sure this project is dead once and for all.
If your senator previously opposed this project thank him/her for voting to protect Illinois ratepayers and the environment and urge continued opposition to the Taylorville Energy Center. Ask your senator to support real clean energy projects that create good stable jobs for Illinois.
For further information, contact the Issues Specialists.
RATIONALE
Tenaska’s Taylorville Energy Center Bill SB678 was defeated on October 27; however, a motion was filled to reconsider, and it will be back for another vote this week.
This coal gasification plant proposal for Central Illinois is environmentally risky, expensive (as much as $4 billion), and unnecessary for Illinois. Turning coal into synthetic natural gas is an expensive and energy-intensive process, creating double the amount of pollution as burning conventional natural gas. Even after the proposed carbon capture and sequestration, the plant would add 10 billion pounds of pollution to our air each year (equivalent to over one million additional cars on our roads). The project will lead to new coal mining using new destructive practices that will ruin Illinois farms, destroy streams, and create pools of toxic waste in rural communities. We would be forced to buy power from this plant for 30 years at a cost that would be twice as much as power from clean wind energy.
Cleaner, cheaper energy alternatives are available to Illinois.
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