WBEZ | electricity

Energy suppliers challenge the lawfulness of a 'clean coal' subsidy

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:39:00 -0600

A group of energy companies is challenging a likely increase in the price of electricity. They say energy from FutureGen, a proposed coal plant project in central Illinois, would cost more for consumers.

FutureGen is developing an ambitious coal plant and storage facility in Morgan County that would remove almost all of the carbon dioxide from emissions and transport it to a storage facility that would push the gas deep underground. The project’s proponents include Gov. Pat Quinn and Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that has been linked to climate change.

In December, the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a plan that would require energy suppliers to buy part of their power from FutureGen over a 20-year period. The estimated price increase to consumers would be less than 1.5 percent, below the 2 percent cap state law places on new costs for clean energy projects.

But a group of private suppliers is fighting the ICC decision through the Illinois Appellate Court. Commonwealth Edison also has filed a separate challenge to the order.

“Why should consumers be subsidizing power that is above today’s market price for electricity?” said Kevin Wright, president of the Illinois Competitive Energy Association. He represents a consortium of companies who provide electricity. He said requiring his clients to participate in what he called a "subsidy" for so-called clean coal is unlawful and works to undermine a competitive electricity market. He also argued Illinois does not need any new power sources.

Advocates say FutureGen will turn Meredosia power plant into a cutting-edge clean coal facility. But the project has run into many roadblocks since its inception in 2006, including a struggle to find a location in 2008, political drama in 2009 over misestimating the cost of the plant, and a loss of key funders that same year.

In 2011, FutureGen was declared to be underway again, this time as FutureGen 2.0, and a $1 billion grant from the federal government gave the project new viability. A 2011 fact sheet from FutureGen puts the project cost at $1.3 billion, and says the plant will create 2,000 jobs.

On Wednesday Sen. Durbin released a statement putting ComEd’s parent company Exelon on the hot seat for withdrawing from the FutureGen Alliance and then mounting a court challenge to the funding plan. Last month Exelon announced it would pull out of the group of companies lending support to the plan, although Crain's reported Exelon said it was never officially a member of the Alliance.

“Exelon sent its smiling representatives to press conferences lauding the value of FutureGen,” said Durbin. “Then last month, Exelon abruptly resigned from the FutureGen Alliance without explanation and today we learned Exelon has filed an appeal challenging the ICC ruling which is critical part of our FutureGen strategy. This heavy-handed corporate betrayal has few parallels in Illinois history.”

Representatives of the FutureGen Alliance were not available to comment Wednesday, but a spokesperson said in an email that “appeals are a normal part of the process and will be resolve (sic) in due time. In parallel, FutureGen 2.0’s development activities will continue without disruption.”

A spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment until she’s seen the court filing, but said the commission stands by its December order.

Follow Lewis Wallace on Twitter.

Activists rejoice as coal-fired plants shut down

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:54:00 -0500

Neighborhood and environmental activists are celebrating as Chicago’s last two coal-fired electricity plants enter a three-month decommissioning phase. But the closings are leaving dozens of Midwest Generation workers without a job.

The company, a subsidiary of California-based Edison International, says its Crawford station in the city’s Little Village neighborhood burned its last lump of coal more than a week ago after operating since 1924. The Fisk station, constructed in 1903 in nearby Pilsen, shut down Thursday night.

Activists campaigned for more than a decade to close the plants or curb their harmful emissions, which included asthma-triggering soot and carbon dioxide, a contributor to global warming.

Standing near Crawford on Friday afternoon, Rafael Hurtado of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization almost had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

“The smokestack and the chimney are not running,” Hurtado observed. “The parking lot is empty other than the security guards. This is a victory not only for our organization but Little Village and Pilsen and the city of Chicago.”

Local 15 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represented about 135 workers at the plants, says some are accepting retirement packages or transferring to another Midwest Generation site, where they will bump employees with less seniority. The union represents about 700 workers at the company’s six Illinois generators.

“There just aren’t enough jobs,” said Doug Bedinger, a Local 15 business representative for the workers. “There will be hardship.”

Midwest Generation President Douglas McFarlan said roughly 100 union members are leaving voluntarily while another 50 get laid off.

McFarlan, meanwhile, said the company is trying to sell the Chicago sites. The timing of environmental remediation “depends on the interests” of the buyers, he said.

“It’s part of the sales process,” McFarlan said, adding that a school might have different cleanup needs than a warehouse.

The closings resulted partly from federal clean-air rules requiring Midwest Generation to retrofit its plants. McFarlan said a bigger factor was the rise of natural gas production, which has put downward pressure on energy prices. “We just can’t run profitably,” he said.

Electricity shortages in Lebanon spark offshore natural gas exploration

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:46:00 -0500

In Lebanon, most people have learned to cope with unreliable electricity. But a long term solution to Lebanon’s power problem may lie offshore.

Recently, neighboring Israel discovered an enormous natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea just south of Lebanon. Energy experts say there’s enough gas there to satisfy Israel’s needs for the next hundred years. Lebanon believes there may be significant natural gas reserves off its coast as well. Don Duncan from the World Vision Report looks into what this could mean for the people of Lebanon.

This story originally aired on the World Vision Report. We got it from the Public Radio Exchange.

Heat wave leads ComEd to suspend electricity shutoffs

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:01:00 -0500

Northern Illinois residents behind on their electricity bills don’t have to worry about Commonwealth Edison disconnecting them. They don’t, that is, until the heat wave lets up.

If a day’s National Weather Service forecast predicts temperatures of at least 95 degrees, Illinois prohibits a big power company from disconnecting homes that depend on the juice to keep cool.

ComEd spokeswoman Arlana Johnson late Thursday said her company, given the heat, had not cut off any of its residential customers since last week. “We have been evaluating that on a daily basis,” she added.

The company’s restraint won praise from Elce Redmond, an organizer of the South Austin Coalition, a neighborhood group on Chicago’s West Side that is pushing for an overhaul of utility shutoff policies. “That’s a good first step,” Redmond said. “But, once the weather breaks, are they going to start massive disconnections?”

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, the coalition demanded a three-month moratorium on shutoffs and, then, more affordable reconnection and repayment terms.

ComEd responded that it cut off power only as a last resort. “No business can continue to operate if customers don’t pay for the service,” Johnson said.

During the year’s first six months, ComEd disconnected 46,493 customers for nonpayment and reconnected 28,252, according to the Illinois Commerce Commission. Those figures were up 4.1 percent and 28.5 percent, respectively, from the same months of 2010.

North suburbs call ComEd to account for power outages

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:00:00 -0500

Officials in Chicago’s northern suburbs are calling power provider ComEd to account for frequent and long-lasting blackouts. A storm last Monday left many customers without electricity, some for the entire week.

In Evanston, strong winds toppled dozens of trees, taking down lines to more than 12,000 thousand customers. But Evanston Alderman Jane Grover says that during other outages this summer, electricity was unavailable even when the lines remained up.

“Evanston is still very much concerned about the ComEd infrastructure issues,” said Grover, ”as well as their response time for restoration of power, and their ability to pump information out into the community about preparing for a longer outage.”

Grover and her fellow aldermen will grill ComEd representatives at a city council meeting Monday night. The power company faced Park Ridge officials and residents at a meeting last Thursday. Highland Park has invited the company to answer questions at its July 25 council meeting.

Illinois House passes electricity rates increase

Mon, 30 May 2011 18:21:00 -0500

The Illinois House approved a plan Monday to upgrade the state's power grid that would also result in higher electric bills.

Long negotiations resulted in various changes to the measure as time has gone on, but one thing is for sure: Commonwealth Edison customers and a majority of those served by Ameren will pay more. The utilities estimate customers will pay about $3 a month more, with the promise of eventual savings down the road.

The money would be used to improve infrastructure and help create a "smart grid," which is touted as a more efficient system. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Orland Park, said it's an idea whose time has come.

"This is the time to make sure our state is in a position to attract jobs of the future and have a grid ready to accept the inventions we know are on the way," McCarthy said.

But not everyone is sold on the need. Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, said it will hit constituents in the pocketbook.

"At a time when people are sitting at their kitchen tables trying to figure out how to make ends meet," Flowers said.

Both Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Gov. Pat Quinn oppose the plan as well. While it passed the House, the measure failed to get the super-majority support it would need to override a veto from the governor, which could doom the plan.

Madigan mad again at ComEd

Thu, 19 May 2011 10:07:00 -0500

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is joining the chorus of voices opposed to House Bill 14. The bill proposes upgrading state utilities to create a so-called "smart grid."

Power companies claim modernizing will protect against outages and save consumers money down the line. For now it would mean higher ComEd bills. But Madigan argues there's already a fair system in place that ComEd should use to make necessary improvements.

She says ComEd "actually wants a guaranteed profit where they don't have to go through a system to get it. They want to go directly into your wallet. They don't want to have to prove what they did was reasonable or fair. They just want your money."

Madigan says as the bill is written, utility companies could increase rates before getting the state's approval and there's no cap on how high rates could rise.

ComEd spokeswoman Alicia Zatkowski said a revised bill is in the works and should be finalized by the end of this week. She says the new bill would eliminate automatic rate increases and addresses other complaints.

In a statement released by ComEd in the wake of complaints, the company concluded, "The bottom line is this: the grid needs to be modernized now. We cannot afford to wait. Other states are on the move, and we need to get moving."

Lawmakers OK huge Chicago coal-to-gas plant

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:30:00 -0600

Illinois lawmakers approved a plan to build a massive natural gas plant on Chicago’s South Side. The project promises to create jobs, but may also increase both pollution and utility bills. The plant would turn Illinois coal and refinery waste into substitute natural gas, which four utilities would face strong pressure to buy. That gas would be pricey, which could drive up people’s bills.

“There’s no question that the gas coming out of this plant will be more expensive than the gas you can buy on the open market,” said Barry Matchett, co-legislative director at the Environmental Law and Policy Center. “It will be more expensive for at least 20 years. We think that’s grossly unfair.”

The project’s developer, New York-based Leucadia National Corporation, has pledged to put up money to offset the higher costs, though if gas prices stay near their current rates, that fund would be exhausted within several years.

Supporters say the plant has plenty of environmental and economic benefits, like redeveloping a South Side brownfield and creating 200 jobs. It would also provide a major customer for Illinois’s high-sulfur coal, which has few domestic markets left.

The bill passed by veto-proof margins, and now awaits the governor’s signature.