St. Louis based Ameren Corporation is threatening
to shut down two of its coal fired Illinois power plants unless the Illinois
Pollution Control Board gives Ameren a five year extension on the January 1,
2015 deadline for installing sulfur dioxide scrubbers at those facilities.
Pleading poverty, Ameren President Steven Sullivan says, “Current market prices
for power simply do not allow further investment in pollution control equipment
at this time.” Pointing out that the utility has had eight years notice of the
stack gas scrubber installation deadline, Rebecca Stanfield of the Natural
Resources Defense Council opposes any extension: “The public shouldn’t have to
tolerate another five years of unscrubbed coal pollution or the health
consequences that result from operating an ancient plant with last century
technology. If it turns out that there are more cost-effective and cleaner ways
of meeting our electricity needs, the market will allow those solutions to
replace the existing coal fleet.”
While petitioning for the scrubber deadline
extension, Ameren is also seeking an additional avenue of relief – removal of
power grid barriers that presently prohibit Ameren from wheeling power across
the grid to northern Illinois markets where it could get a higher price per kilowatt
hour, enabling investment in faster scrubber installation. It remains to be
seen whether either solution to Ameren’s capital investment woes will
materialize any time soon.
