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The proposed Taylorville Energy Center coal plant would leave Illinois families and businesses paying nine times today’s market price for electricity every year for the next 30 years. That’s a cost increase to customers of $400 million every year, which would add up to $12 billion over the lifetime of this project.

Illinois already produces 30% more electricity than its residents use, meaning consumers would be forced to pay more for power we don’t even need.

In 2010 the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) concluded, “The TEC facility features high costs to ratepayers with uncertain future benefits, and uncertainties that potentially add to already-significant costs.” What’s more, natural gas and electricity prices have sharply decreased since the ICC’s study, meaning the Taylorville Energy Center has grown even more costly relative to alternatives.

As a result of the Taylorville Energy Center:

• Local governments and vital service providers would face huge new costs at a time when budgets are already strapped;

• Illinois employers and job-creators would be subject to nearly limitless financial risk from cost overruns and construction delays; and

• Illinois residents would battle more pollution due to the lax emissions limits project developer Tenaska has pursued.

The bottom line: the Taylorville Energy Center would send your hard earned money up in smoke for power that we don’t need. Tell your legislator to oppose SB 678 or any legislation that supports this unnecessary project.