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The Illinois legislature is expected to consider SB 678 that would force Illinois families, businesses and government agencies to pay up to seven times today’s market price for electricity to build Tenaska’s Taylorville Energy Center (TEC).

Illinois should learn from Indiana’s disastrous experience with a coal-gasification plant in Edwardsport, Indiana – similar to what Tenaska wants to build – and reject the TEC.

The Indiana plant has been in construction since 2008 and is still not complete. Its owners originally estimated the cost to be $1.98 billion, but the project has suffered numerous construction and engineering setbacks resulting in huge cost overruns. The project’s scope and complexity have driven costs up to a currently estimated $2.98 billion – a full $1 billion over budget! This includes a filing last week that upped the costs an additional $220 million.

Predictably, the plant’s owners are passing most of the costs onto consumers. The company has won approval to pass along at least $2.35 billion of its costs to customers. Click here to read a recent Indianapolis Star-Tribune article about this enormous mess.

Even if Tenaska’s TEC were built on schedule and on budget, it would still cost Illinois families, businesses, and government agencies up to seven times today’s market price for electricity for the next 30 years. And as Indiana’s experience shows, it could be far worse!

But it’s not too late for Illinois to reject the TEC. Please take a moment to let your legislator know that you oppose the Taylorville Energy Center. Visit www.STOPCoalition.com to learn more.