New power plant breaks ground, environmental group balks (Illinois)

[jpak]

http://www.chicagosuburbannews.com/geneva/homepage/x1667163005

Several Geneva officials attended the groundbreaking for a new power plant being built in southern Illinois even as an environmental group is calling on them to withdraw their support.

“There are lot cleaner ways to create power and use power to avoid having to build a new coal fired power plant,” Sierra Club Regional Representative Becki Clayborn said.

Geneva is one of nearly 250 municipalities that would receive power, in part, from the Prairie State Energy Campus, a state-of-the-art 1,600-megawatt facility. The Sierra Club has sent letters to local officials in each municipality warning them about the financial and environmental costs of coal plants as city officials say the plant will help energy keep costs down.

“We’re always looking for other options and we saw this as an effective alternative for a baseload of power that will secure our rates for the next 30-plus years,” said Geneva Public Works Director Dan Dinges.

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