ILLUSTRATION BY METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION It was like a bad April Fools’ Day prank, only a few days early. Springfield resident Tara Lybarger, a 42-year-old cashier at a laundromat, had been waiting since December to get signed up for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). On March 24, a few days before the […]
Energy
Posted inNews
A life-or-death decision for Dallman power plants
PHOTO BY RACHEL WELLS CWLP power plant Springfield City Water, Light and Power must decide whether to upgrade or decomission its three oldest boilers in light of changing pollution regulations, and the utility’s decision could affect the cost of power in Springfield for decades. An environmental compliance study commissioned by CWLP in December 2013 explored […]
Posted inNews
Does FutureGen have a future?
With U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois looking on, Ken Humphreys, CEO of the FutureGen Alliance, signs a labor agreement on Monday to provide union labor for the FutureGen project planned in a rural area outside Jacksonville. The agreement may signal that the long-delayed project is moving forward. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Illinois is one […]
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Coal ash ruling could mean new restrictions
A federal judge has ordered the United States Environmental Protection Agency to pass regulations on disposal of coal ash, which could have far-reaching implications for Illinois’ rebounding coal industry and coal plant operators like Springfield City Water, Light and Power. The Illinois-based environmental group Prairie Rivers Network participated in the lawsuit that prompted the decision […]
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Shell game
A Texas-based energy company wants to take over several coal plants in Illinois, but environmental groups claim the company is planning to skip pollution controls and use a shell company to avoid taking on any risk. Dynegy Inc. of Houston, Texas, is planning to acquire five coal plants in central and southern Illinois from Ameren […]
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Natural gas fracking is coming to Illinois
Illinois is poised to tap into a rich vein of money by allowing an oil and gas drilling method known as “fracking,” but environmental concerns and disagreement over state taxes are keeping that financial well plugged for now. Hydraulic fracturing of shale rock – called “fracking” for short – has been used since the 1940s […]
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State gives Ameren a pollution pass
State regulators won’t enforce pollution limits on one of Illinois’ largest power generators until 2020 under a ruling released Sept. 20. The Illinois Pollution Control Board last week granted Ameren Energy Resources – a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation – a variance that allows the power plant operator to put off compliance with a […]
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Tenaska drops clean coal plan for Taylorville
A proposed state-of-the-art “clean coal” power plant in Taylorville has been sidelined, but the project could still continue as a natural gas power plant. Nebraska-based Tenaska, Inc. says its proposed Taylorville Energy Center is necessary to prevent power shortages as old coal plants go offline, but opponents question whether it’s really needed and why taxpayers […]
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Coal curriculum
Illinois is a coal state – the eighth-largest producer of coal in the nation at 33.2 million tons in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The Illinois Geological Survey estimates Illinois coal holds more energy potential than all of Saudi Arabia’s and Kuwait’s oil reserves combined. It makes sense that the state would […]
Posted inOpinion
Modern minstrels
Poets, we are reliably told, once were creatures of the street and the court, not the study, and poetry was sung, or at least recited. That past lives again every year when Springfield area schoolkids take the stage during the Poetry Out Loud recitation competition, whose winners have a chance to go on, if not […]
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CWLP readies for greener future
A contract requiring Springfield’s public utility to be more environmentally responsible doesn’t expire for another six years, but local activists are already urging the city and its residents to start thinking now about how today’s decisions can determine City, Water, Light and Power’s seemingly distant future. In 2006, the Sangamon Valley Group of the Sierra […]
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The dirty business of CLEAN COAL
Take a drive this time of year down any state highway and you’ll likely see chipboard signs promoting this guy for sheriff and that guy for Senate. This much is true when traveling down Route 48. But along this road, which slices through the heart of Christian County, you’ll also see a slick metal sign, […]
