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Clean coal bill praised, attacked

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Illinois

* Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill yesterday to help create a coal gasification plant in Chicago…

The $3 billion plant is set to be built on a former industrial site on the city’s southeast side. The so-called “coal gasification” plant will turn Illinois coal and refinery waste into a natural gas substitute, without having to burn the coal.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn originally vetoed the project, saying it would jack up consumer energy prices. But he says the new plan has been revamped.

“Natural gas that’s gonna be produced here will be purchased by our four major natural gas companies,” Quinn said. “And there are rate caps to protect consumers.”

* Sen. Gary Forby says the Chicago plant is good for southern Illinois…

Forby said the plant will utilize, for the first time in Illinois, the clean coal technology known as gasification. Coal and petroleum coke will be used to produce substitute natural gas to be sold to Illinois gas utilities. Carbon dioxide and other harmful emissions will be sequestered underground, which dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Chicago Clean Energy expects that the plant will create tens of thousands of jobs directly and indirectly in Illinois, including 1,100 construction jobs, 200 permanent jobs, and an additional 165 mining jobs.

Forby hopes the governor will act quickly on Senate Bill 2169 that passed earlier this year, which gives the green light to begin construction on a clean coal facility in Jefferson County.

“Coal’s future is looking bright. These new facilities, combined with the new or expanded mining operations in Saline, Franklin and Jefferson counties, are great indicators that coal’s future is on the upswing in Southern Illinois,” Forby said in a news release.

* But the Sierra Club and some neighbors are not happy at all…

“Creating synthetic natural gas is a very dirty way of getting our natural gas,” Becki Clayborn, a representative for the Sierra Club’s Midwest Clean Energy Campaign. “It’s dirty, it’s dangerous and it’s unnecessary.”

Clayborn said the law will saddle consumers with expensive natural gas for decades to come.

* If this is correct, then the fears may be way overblown…

The plant’s emissions are expected to be on par with those of the Art Institute of Chicago, [Rep. Marlow Colvin] said.

Rather than burning coal and sending byproducts through a smokestack, the plant would convert coal and refinery waste into gas and byproducts that are collected, sold or reused. The synthetic natural gas produced would then be used to heat Illinois homes.

Also…

State Rep. Marlow Colvin says the developer would clean up LTV’s environmental disaster.

“It has left an incredible amount of pollution far into the ground,” said Colvin.

* Despite the legislation, a lot of hurdles remain…

Leucadia needs permission to add pollution to a crowded industrial area in Chicago and has not pinned down a buyer for its carbon dioxide emissions. The owners of the proposed plant site also are locked in a legal battle to persuade the state to let it sell its permission to pollute to Leucadia along with the site. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has opposed the sale of the pollution offsets.

* The governor gets the last, inimitable, word…

“We’re going to be reclaiming a site that needs some remediation,” Quinn said. “We know what has happened here in the past in this part of our state of Illinois. This area a mighty area when it came to steel and industrial products, we want to make sure that its going to be mighty again.”

No mention of Abe Lincoln?

…Adding… Roundup…

* Press Release: Senator Mike Jacobs (D-Moline) is working to inform local seniors that they may have received a letter from the Department on Aging stating their prescription drug benefits have been terminated. Hundreds of seniors are receiving this letter in error.

* State will hold off cutting foster care to 2 religious agencies: In the meantime, none of the Catholic Charities still offering foster care services in Illinois may take in new children, state officials said.

* Nekritz: No across-the-board elimination of regional education offices

* Youth jobs grants problematic for area agencies - Biggest problem: Agencies still waiting for the money

* Partnership to launch Aurora STEM school

* Study: Race factors into IL traffic stops

* Editorial: Write on!

* Schoenburg: Quinn Israel trip to key on green issues

* Rutherford says state holds $1.5B in unclaimed assets, $44B in bond debt

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 11:53 am

Comments

Where underground are the millions of tons of coal sludge going to be stored? From the picture of the site it looks about three blocks from the lake. There is no competent Environmental Manager who could sign off on injection of this sludge that close to the lake. The sludge will directly enter the lake within a year.

Comment by JBilla Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 12:38 pm
The hi-tech trifecta of clean coal, smart grid, and high speed rail are no doubt the future of Illinois.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:03 pm
I’m disappointed that they didn’t choose to develop a new nuclear plant there instead of coal gassification.

Or a thermal depolymerization plant to purify and decontaminate waste, in a way that would not threaten air quaity or groundwater, and would reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfill by reclaiming metals and minerals from the depolymerized waste stream.

Being close to the lake, they could even have made a powerplant there that was based on the temperature difference between deep and surface lake water. Kind of like geothermal, but based on the difference in water temps.

Comment by Techboy Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:03 pm
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:03 pm:

“The hi-tech trifecta of clean coal, smart grid, and high speed rail are no doubt the future of Illinois.”

Not just Illinois, all of America!!!

Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:25 pm
==No mention of Abe Lincoln?==

It’s a direct quote of Lincoln! Well, I’m pretty sure Lincoln actually said every one of those words, just not necessarily in the same order.

Comment by Pat Robertson Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:28 pm
Quinn’s mighty quote was just a matter of him being mighty hungry and thinking ahead to his favorite meal …

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/meal_bundles/mighty_kids_meals.html

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 2:28 pm
Michelle, I thought the “Mighty Quinn” was a Mac & Cheese guy. Maybe only when he’s at the Kraft plant.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 2:37 pm
I have a feeling that the only interests that are going to make money on the Leucadia project will be the lobbyists and consultants. Coal-gas technology is complicated and expensive, with a lot of questions about its long-term, commercial viability. Just my two cents, but I’m betting the project won’t get off the ground.

Comment by Going nuclear Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 2:53 pm
Full disclosure - I work on behalf of the Chicago Clean Energy project. A great deal of information is available at the website www.chicagocleanenergy.com . JBilla, I am not sure what sludge you are referring to, but there is no combustion involved in the process. In fact, the re-use and capture of by-products is a key advantage of the process. The project near the Calumet River, not Lake Michigan.

Comment by Chicago Clean Energy Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 2:58 pm
Now come on would’nt we all love to see what Beckis’ husband and the rest of the Sierra Clubs folks do when they cook out? Charcoal? Propane? or do they all dance in the woods for a combination of Oak, Ash and the occasional Hickory?? bet they don’t swat the ’squitoes either… Sheesh

Comment by railrat Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 5:36 pm
–“It’s dirty, it’s dangerous and it’s unnecessary.”–

I’m about as Green as they come when it comes to energy, and ride the rails all day long leaving a (relatively) small carbon footprint, but don’t kid yourself into thinking that we don’t need coal or nuclear for the foreseeable future.

No breakthroughs in cleaner energy happen until you take the next step, whether it’s oil, natural gas, nuclear, wind, or whatever. Our energy demands are insatiable. It’s worth a shot.

Forget the ethanol, though, and get rid of the subsidies. It takes too much energy and much, much too much fresh water to produce.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 7:15 pm
Just wondering, why do we need a method to make expensive natural gas?

Natural gas reserves for cheap gas are off the hook!

Comment by Plutocrat03 Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 8:05 pm
Coal gasification, railroads - suddenly it is 1850 in Chicago!

I like diversity and support a variety of fuel sources, but not when we are dead broke as a people and we can get our immediate energy needs right out of our own backyards.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 8:36 pm
Coal is an 18th Century fuel that was the despair of every poetbthat ever loved an unspoiled landscape. Nothing has changed since then. It is still filthy and poisonous , albeit less obviously. There is only one fuel that will allow our children and grandchildren to live healthy lives in a “green and pleasant” environment. And that’s solar. We have all the technology we need to go solar now, in Illinois, nationally, and globally.

Comment by Bartelby Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 10:11 pm
“JBilla, I am not sure what sludge you are referring to, but there is no combustion involved in the process. In fact, the re-use and capture of by-products is a key advantage of the process. The project near the Calumet River, not Lake Michigan.”

If I’m not mistaken, this is a sequestration plant, requiring an underground injection. I got that from the article. If that’s not the case, please correct the article. what is in the injection, how much is in the injection, and where does the Calumet River flow when it rains?

Comment by JBilla Friday, Jul 15, 11 @ 3:20 pm