AT THE MAJOR CCS PROJECTS: TAYLORVILLE

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
05/18/12

AT TAYLORVILLE: OPPONENTS CONTINUE TO OPPOSE PLANT DESPITE CHANGES

Several opponents of Tenaska’s Taylorville Energy Center (TEC) continued to speak out against the central Illinois project in recent days despite significant plant design changes made by the utility in order to garner more political support in the state. In the days since Tenaska officials announced plans to change the plant design to shelve the coal gasification unit and only move forward with natural gas-fired power generation on site, TEC opponents said they are continuing their opposition to the plant.

TEC’s most prominent political rival, the Exelon-led Stop Tenaska’s Overpriced Power (STOP) Coalition said the revised project is still a “bad deal” for Illinois. “The key facts remain the same: Illinois consumers would pay higher electricity rates and give a giant subsidy to a private, out-of-state company for unneeded electric power,” the group said in a statement. “In light of Tenaska’s announced plan, the STOP Coalition not only remains unified but has added new members due to growing opposition, and we will continue to press lawmakers to reject this costly, unnecessary giveaway.”

Meanwhile, some environmental groups also spoke out against the revised project. “Tenaska has been trying for years to secure legislation allowing it to move forward with guaranteed revenues from Illinois ratepayers, when we could meet our energy needs with much cleaner resources at a lower cost. We urge the General Assembly to reject this again this year, and we hope it will be the last of this project and others like it,” said Rebecca Stanfield, a senior energy advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The state chapter of the Sierra Club said it would also continue to oppose the project.

Tenaska Aims To Garner More Political Support

The criticism comes a week after the Nebraska-based Tenaska said it would be halting plans for the coal gasification portion of TEC until ‘clean coal’ becomes more economical. Instead, the utility said it would pursue a natural gas combined cycle unit to produce electricity onsite, enabling the cost of the project to decrease by two-thirds from $3.5 billion to slightly more than $1 billion, according to company estimates.

The alterations were a last-minute effort on behalf of Tenaska to gain approval from the Illinois state legislature before the end of the legislative session on May 31. Legislation to greenlight the original version of TEC—pitched as a 602 MW ‘hybrid’ facility with both a natural gas and coal gasification unit with a carbon capture component—has been stalled in the state legislature on and off for the last four years due to criticism that the plant is too expensive and would significantly raise electricity rates in the state for residents and businesses.

In recent days, Tenaska emphasized the smaller economic impact of the altered TEC. It released a new report this week that concluded that the project would save Illinois ratepayers more than $437 million over 20 years in electricity bills compared to the previous plant. Last week, the utility said the reduced costs of the new version of the project would lead to a rate impact of less than 60 cents per month for residential customers and one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt for businesses. The company also said it would absorb all cost overruns that may occur with the project. However, the project could still face substantial political opposition in the state legislature given that it is seeking a 30-year power purchase agreement for the facility.