Another day, another power company bailout
Wednesday, Oct 3, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* BGA…
A decision is expected Thursday on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s move to prop up the coal power industry in Illinois by easing clean-air rules, a change critics say is an unneeded benefit to a large energy company that will lead to more pollution-related deaths and sickness.
The Illinois Pollution Control Board, a state rule-making panel, is expected to decide whether to end current clean-air requirements for eight downstate coal-fired power plants.
Existing rules dictate that owner Dynegy run its cleanest coal plants — those with the best pollution controls — to balance toxins emitted by its dirtiest plants. The board is being asked by the Rauner administration to replace that rule with one that imposes an annual cap on total emissions opponents say will allow greater amounts of toxins to be released into the air.
It’s a plan being driven by economics — coal power plants have a hard time competing with other sources of energy in Illinois, said Gerald Keenan, a former board member and past chairman of the pollution board. […]
The problem with the Rauner plan, according to health and environmental groups and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, is that it would allow the dirtiest plants to operate more frequently. They also criticize what they call the high caps proposed by Rauner’s Illinois Environmental Protection Agency that they say could allow for a doubling of what is already tens of thousands of tons of harmful sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions released into the air every year.
All but one of the pollution panel’s five members were appointed to the board by Rauner. If it sides with the governor, the new coal plan still has one more regulatory hurdle to cross before it can go into effect — approval from a bipartisan panel of House and Senate lawmakers. […]
Dynegy, bought this year for more than $2 billion by Texas-based Vistra Energy, began lobbying Rauner’s EPA in late 2016 to change the rules, pollution board documents show. Other documents, submitted to the board, show Illinois EPA Director Alec Messina and his staff were in contact with Dynegy last year to draft the rule change.
In Illinois, Dynegy argued the rule changes are needed to keep it competitive with energy rivals. Prior to joining Rauner’s cabinet, Messina was a registered lobbyist for a trade group that includes Dynegy as a member.
Messina’s former employer is the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group. Its members include oil and chemical companies, energy producers and manufacturers.
* Related…
* Instead of removing toxic waste seeping into Illinois’ only scenic river, power company wants to wall it off with rocks: Located a few miles downstream from a popular kayak and canoe launch, Vistra’s three coal ash pits were dug into the floodplain by Illinois Power, which built a coal-fired power plant next to the river in 1955 and sold it in 2000 to Dynegy, another Texas-based company. By the time Dynegy shuttered the Vermilion Power Station in 2011, the pits swelled with enough water-soaked coal ash to fill the Empire State Building nearly 2½ times. Dynegy knew more than a decade ago that heavy metals found in coal ash were polluting the river, according to internal company documents. So did the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, but the state did little in response other than file a 2012 complaint that remains unresolved.
- TheDude - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 10:18 am:
Stop propping up coal, invest heavily in renewable energy sources. Replace the energy provided from coal with a natural gas/nuclear/renewable sources mix.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 10:20 am:
If the state is going to bail out dirty coal plants, the whale oil industry must be next in line.
Maybe some EDGE credits for a new buggy-whip factory.
- don the legend - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 10:23 am:
It’s obvious that the solution to climate change and the warming of our atmosphere is energy company’s lobbying and campaign contributions.
The more of the latter the less of the former.
- The Way it Works - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 10:35 am:
It’s important to realize that the health and safety of the drinking water sources and air quality of 12.5 M people is dependent on Alec Messina’s employment prospects in january of 2019.
- Earnest - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 10:58 am:
I think there’s a solution in here to all the state’s budget problems. People get very upset over any kind of tax increase, but seem to be fine with electric rate increases of any kind in the name of jobs. Politicians even brag about it. “We saved a nuclear plant and all its jobs!” If our political leaders just allow increases in rates and tax those increases they could brag about saving jobs at their local schools and social service agencies by being able to fund them, of the construction jobs from infrastructure projects, of the stable, balanced state budget that will bring businesses into the state by the hundreds. /s
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 10:58 am:
The 2 most important issues facing our country are global warming and gun violence, the Republican Party’s response is to do nothing.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 11:00 am:
I guess being an environmentalist means keeping your wasteful lifestyles, while forcing people hundreds of miles away, to lose everything they have. Is that where the savings occur?
Until the people telling us that “we ought to…” starts actually doing what they say we ought to do - it’s nothing more than politics and nonsense.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 11:02 am:
–I guess being an environmentalist means keeping your wasteful lifestyles, while forcing people hundreds of miles away, to lose everything they have.–
Please go on, with specifics, in the context of this thread, about this horrible real thing you’re describing.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 11:07 am:
If the PCB is smart, they’ll find a way to punt this. It was a terrible decision by Messina and IEPA and a positive decision by PCB to validate their mistake will result in grandfathered, unregulated old plants being run more often which will result in far more pollution. Hopefully PCB will find away around validating that mess.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 11:18 am:
Well, Rauner is on record supporting pollution and cancer so he is at least being consistent.
- Last Bull Moose - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 11:31 am:
In a former life, I marketed coal fired power plants. That time is gone.
These plants should be fully deprecated. If they cannot cover their operating costs under the current pollution roles, shut them down.
- Say what - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 11:47 am:
–The 2 most important issues facing our country are global warming and gun violence, the Republican Party’s response is to do nothing.–
$21 trillion in national debt didn’t make the list?
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 11:53 am:
–$21 trillion in national debt didn’t make the list?–
Clearly, it did not among those who control the White House and Congress.
What kind of economics do you call doubling the deficit in a full employment, growth economy? Double-Secret-Probation-Voodoo?
You’re actually supposed to be paying it down, under those conditions, like the Clinton years.
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/400030-double-trouble-trump-policies-have-us-headed-for-twin-deficits
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 11:58 am:
The coal-fired plant owners saw the writing on the wall, long ago, and instead of either shutting those plants down or converting them to natural gas, they went with trying to game the system to keep a status quo that is no longer tenable. I would have voted for a quasi-bailout that helped them convert. But not a penny for them now. In fact, bill the heck out of them for the expense of mitigating the spoils of their “clean coal”. And no, a wall ain’t gonna cut it.
- Run Wild - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 12:14 pm:
So it’s OK to bail out Exelon but not other companies? Got it.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 1:04 pm:
–So it’s OK to bail out Exelon but not other companies? Got it–
Why “bail out” any of them? They’re profitable.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 3:12 pm:
=why “bail out ” any of them?=
Maybe it has something to do with campaign contributions.
- Mr. GRE$$EN - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 3:24 pm:
no brainer how JCAR will vote on this measure
Dynegy is very ACTIVE on contributions
just saying
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Oct 3, 18 @ 3:48 pm:
What happened to the “free market” Coal can’t compete with natural gas — so they get a bailout and we get more pollution? Hard to tell how the vote will go until you see the campaign contributions…. Wish my lungs had deep pockets…