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Good news on air pollution

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Illinois

One the eve of a crucial vote in the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules to roll back mercury emissions, Midwest Gen cuts a deal.

The operator of six coal-fired power plants in northern and central Illinois has struck a deal with Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration calling for drastic cuts in mercury emissions.

Under the deal announced Monday, Midwest Generation officials also agreed to reduce smog and soot at its plants in Chicago, Waukegan, and outside of Romeoville, Joliet and Peoria.

Officials said the fate of three older plants, two in Chicago and one in Waukegan, will be determined by the cost of their cleanup. Those plants could be closed if the cleanup is too costly.

State officials and environmental activists cheered the agreement Monday.

Gotta give the guv props when he deserves it, and he certainly deserves it today. The worst offending plants are terrible polluters (as I recall, some of the company’s plants were grandfathered out of federal clean air laws), but let’s hope they can clean them up because workers there make a good buck.

Meanwhile, on a somewhat related note, Ameren claims the price tag for dealing with the ice storm could be more than $25 million.

Amerenâ€™s efforts to restore electricity to hundreds of thousands of households and businesses after a Nov. 30 ice and snow storm probably will cost more than $25 million, the head of the Ameren Illinois utility companies said Monday.

Scott Cisel, president of the three Ameren Illinois utilities, said he does not yet have a price tag for the recently concluded storm recovery effort. But he expects it will exceed the $20 million to $25 million cost of recovering from a July windstorm that also knocked out electricity for days. […]

Cisel also responded to news reports that the Illinois Commerce Commission last year told Ameren its tree-trimming program did not meet state standards. He disagreed.

â€œTree trimming is important, but tree trimming does not mitigate the problems of a severe storm. When you have ice on limbs that are 10, 15 feet away from a line, that fall into your line, thatâ€™s way beyond tree trimming.â€

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 12, 06 @ 10:09 am

Comments

Absolutely. Cleaning up old dirty coal plants has been as top priority for the environmental community in Illinois for decades. Securing these reductions, on the same day that the Gov’s mercury rule (the strongest in America) gets final approval, makes this truly an historic day.

This is a huge win for the Governor and all the people and organizations who supported it, but the real winners are the babies of the future.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 12, 06 @ 10:13 am
Go Blago go, you are getting it done ! How about it Ashtrak !

Comment by bluedog demo Tuesday, Dec 12, 06 @ 11:58 am
I’m not a Blago fan at all but this is an issue he does deserve credit on. Thanks Blago!

Comment by moderate Tuesday, Dec 12, 06 @ 1:59 pm
The affected plant “outside Peoria” … is it in Pekin or Havana?

Comment by 'Lainer Tuesday, Dec 12, 06 @ 3:26 pm
‘Lainer-

It’s the Powerton plant in Pekin.

Comment by Jonathan Goldman, IEC Tuesday, Dec 12, 06 @ 4:49 pm
I don’t say this often, but hats off to the Governor.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Dec 12, 06 @ 5:59 pm
This is certainly good news and congratulations to the Governor and EPA Director Doug Scott for pressuring the power companies to update the pollution controls at their older electric generating plants. This should have been done years ago when the public utilities decided to keep these outdated plants going instead of investing in cleaner coal-burning technologies. I hope the Governor builds on this victory and makes the environment a much higher priority during his second term. First and foremost, the Governor should clean house at DNR and appoint professionals with expertise in natural resource management to run this agency. He should also instruct EPA to issue permits with tighter pollution limits for new coal-fired power plants, which are being heavily subsidized with taxpayer money. Finally, the Governor should get behind legislation that would require the power companies to make binding commitments to supply their customers with a certain amount of electricity generated from renewable energy. We need to develop more sources of cleaner energy like wind, solar and biomass.

Comment by enviro guy Tuesday, Dec 12, 06 @ 7:17 pm
I hope the Governor builds on this victory and makes the environment a much higher priority during his second term.

Agreed; this is a promising start to his new term.

Comment by Boone Logan Square Tuesday, Dec 12, 06 @ 7:35 pm
Now….if we could just go after those horribly polluting cement kilns!!!!!

Comment by Anon. Wednesday, Dec 13, 06 @ 6:08 am