CITY WATER LIGHT & POWER CITY OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS Douglas A. Brown Chief Utility Engineer
SPRINGFIELD ±A bipartisan coalition of organized labor, lawmakers and municipal officials is united in opposition to a plan under consideration in the General Assembly to prematurely close not-for-profit coal- fired power plants before the end of their useful life, warning such a move would raise utility bills on consumers, eliminate jobs, place new financial burdens on communities forced to find replacement sources of power and threaten energy grid reliability.
The coalition is asking not-for-profit plants operated by City Water, Light & Power in Springfield and the Prairie State Energy Campus in Marissa to be excluded from the 2035 premature closure date proposed in energy legislation under consideration by the General Assembly. This will allow for a more responsible transition to a cleaner energy future that gives communities time to put in place new power sources, train and develop workers, keep utility costs stable and protect grid reliability. The coalition includes Illinois AFL-CIO, Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 137, IBEW Local 193, Southwestern Illinois Building Trades Council, the Illinois Pipe Trades Association, Boilermakers Local 363, Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, Sen. Christopher Belt, D-Swansea, Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, Rep. Sue Scherer, D-Decatur, Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, Rep. LaToya Greenwood, D-East St. Louis, Rep. Charlie Meier, R- Okawville, Sen. Don DeWitte, R-West Dundee, Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder and Doug Brown, Chief Utility Engineer, City Water Light & Power.
³We are not asking for subsidies for these plants, all we are requesting is they be recognized for the value they bring to our economy and our state¶s reliable electric grid by giving our communities a longer runway. We need to ensure the transition to cleaner energy goes smoothly and does not result in major layoffs, and spikes in taxes and electric bills,´said Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield.
³Decisions are being made for our communities with little understanding about how it will impact the lives of our residents,´said Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield. ³Jobs, reliability and affordability of electricity must be top of mind. We don¶t question the increased role renewables will play in our state¶s energy future, but we have to create responsible transitional policy that includes diversity of baseload resources to ensure our electric grid remains strong as further technologies are developed.´
CWLP and Prairie State are unique from traditional coal plants, embracing technology that dramatically reduces emissions and partnering with state and federal officials to study further ways to cut emissions in the future. Unlike other operators, both plants are also not-for-profit entities dedicated to providing energy to municipalities and rural electric cooperatives. If they are closed early, municipalities and rural electric cooperatives across Illinois will be hit with a double whammy in costs: they will still be on the hook for paying off bonds associated with construction of the plants, while also being forced to pay for new energy sources that are not only likely to be more costly but also imported from neighboring states with less stringent environmental standards.
³Prematurely closing these not-for-profit power plants creates additional costs communities cannot afford. This will be directly passed on to residents who will be forced to pay higher electric bills and fees,´ said Sen. Don DeWitte, R-West Dundee.
Commissioned during the Obama-Biden Administration, Prairie State was built $1 billion in state-of-the- art emissions controls and supercritical boiler technology that places it among the top five most efficient in the country. Springfield¶s municipal-owned utility, City Water, Light & Power, is already transitioning to cleaner energy sources, including the retirement of two plants and the planned retirement of a third plant by the fall of 2023. These retirements represent a 2 million ton per year CO2 reduction. Indeed, CWLP¶s early action to reduce carbon is more aggressive than federal guidelines, and it is estimated that CWLP¶s
300 S. SEVENTH STREET SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 62701 CITY WATER LIGHT & POWER CITY OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS Douglas A. Brown Chief Utility Engineer generating facilities will meet the Biden Administration¶s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2030 ±seven years ahead of schedule.
³CWLP has always been on the forefront of the latest technology trying to protect the environment and now is no different,´said Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder. ³We are pleased that CWLP's Dallman Unit 4 was chosen to be an ideal host site for this proposal focused on Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Development and Testing. This groundbreaking initiative will be monitored by, not only energy experts in the U.S., but across the world.´
³Like many communities across Illinois, Springfield is already embracing cleaner energy sources. But given our newest unit was just opened in 2009, it would be irresponsible to shut it down so soon, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and risking reliability,´said Doug Brown, Chief Utility Engineer, City Water Light & Power. ³All we are asking for is time to make this transition in a way that reduces the financial impact on taxpayers and ensures customers can count on electricity when they need it.´
Combined, CWLP and Prairie State employ more than 1,100 workers and support an additional 1,000 skilled union tradesmen and women in good, high paying jobs. If legislation is enacted to close these plants before the end of their useful lives, thousands of employees will lose their jobs, stifling economic activity in areas of the state where jobs can often be hard to come by. Prairie State alone generates $785 million in economic investment each year, including $47 million for local taxing districts since inception.
³Moving our state toward a clean energy future cannot leave workers and their families behind. The state must enact a policy that thoughtfully plans and builds replacement generation while ensuring that workers who've powered our communities for generations are accounted for in any transitional plans,´ said Tim Drea, President of the Illinois AFL-CIO.
³These plants don¶t just power our homes and businesses, they also power our local economies,´said Sen. Christopher Belt, D-Swansea. ³Shutting them down decades before the end of their useful life and without adequate time to put in place new sources of power and train workers is a recipe for disaster.´
Efforts to prematurely shutter CWLP and Prairie State come as they are leading the way forward on carbon-capture technology, partnering with the University of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to study ways to reduce carbon emissions and create future job opportunities in Illinois.
Last month, CWLP was granted $47 million from the U.S. DOE with the University of Illinois¶Prairie Research Institute to conduct large-scale pilot testing of a carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology. The State of Illinois has committed another $20 million to the project, including $9 million which was appropriated in the budget the General Assembly approved this week. Prairie State has a similar partnership with the University of Illinois and the U.S. DOE to conduct a carbon capture FEED (front end engineering and design) study. The $15 million study¶s objective is to identify CO2 emission mitigation opportunities at a commercial scale, which could provide broad value for closing the gap between today¶s technologies and long-term carbon goals of the future. The grant for this study was made possible by the bipartisan support of U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and Congressman Mike Bost, and former Congressman John Shimkus.
³Both plants have demonstrated a commitment to working with policy makers to further mitigate CO2 emissions in the future,´said Totsie Bailey, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Southwestern Illinois Building Trades Council. ³If plants like Prairie State and CWLP are prematurely shuttered,
300 S. SEVENTH STREET SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 62701 CITY WATER LIGHT & POWER CITY OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS Douglas A. Brown Chief Utility Engineer Illinois will need to import power from other states ±likely from less efficient coal plants. This would transform Illinois into a net importer of dirtier power and a net exporter of jobs.´
³These plants should be recognized as different from the rest of the coal fleet and also for the economic support they deliver to Illinois. Energy diversity is important as we transition to a greater reliance on renewable energy in Illinois,´said Rep. LaToya Greenwood, D-East St. Louis.
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300 S. SEVENTH STREET SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 62701