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<title>Planned Illinois coal plant could cast haze over refuge - Chicago
Tribune article</title>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I think I heard this morning on the radio
that Judy Barr Topinka may run for governor! Wouldn’t that be
exciting! What a great friend of the environment she has been!<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>john<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
bcnnet-bounces@ece.iit.edu [mailto:bcnnet-bounces@ece.iit.edu] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Donald R. Dann<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Monday, March 21, 2005 9:17
AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> <st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>Randi
Doeker - <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chicago</st1:place></st1:City><st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>; <st1:PersonName w:st="on">BCN</st1:PersonName>net@ece.iit.edu<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> RE: [<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">BCN</st1:PersonName>net] Planned Illinois coal plant could cast haze
over refuge-Chicago Tribune article</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>I wholeheartedly agree. Forgive my expression of this strong
personal opinion, but in my view our state’s habitat in general and
certainly our bird habitat will see continual and possibly irreparable
degradation under this governor’s administration. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Donnie</span></font></st1:PersonName><font size=4><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=EmailStyle19><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Donald R. Dann</span></font><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=EmailStyle19><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Highland Park/Lake County
</span></font></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
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face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
bcnnet-bounces@ece.iit.edu [mailto:bcnnet-bounces@ece.iit.edu] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Randi Doeker - <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Chicago</st1:City></st1:place><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Monday, March 21, 2005 8:35
AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> <st1:PersonName w:st="on">BCN</st1:PersonName>net@ece.iit.edu<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> [<st1:PersonName w:st="on">BCN</st1:PersonName>net]
Planned Illinois coal plant could cast haze over refuge -Chicago Tribune
article</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Forwarded with little comment because there is nothing polite I
can say about our Governor.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Randi Doeker</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Chicago</span></font></st1:City></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>--------------------</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Planned <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Illinois</st1:State></st1:place>
coal plant could cast haze over refuge </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>--------------------</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>By <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Michael Hawthorne</st1:PersonName></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Chicago</span></font> <font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Tribune staff reporter</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>March 21, 2005</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>PUXICO, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Mo.</st1:State></st1:place>
-- From a bluff above the remnants of a vast hardwood swamp, the view often is
clouded by haze that makes this soggy thicket of cypress and tupelo one of the
dirtiest wilderness areas in the nation.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Scientists at the federal agency that oversees the Mingo
National Wildlife Refuge say a new coal-fired power plant approved by the
administration of</span></font><b><span style='font-weight:bold'> </span></b><b><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";
font-weight:bold'>Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich</span></font></b><font size=2
face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>
only will make the problem worse--adding more pollution to the chemical stew
lingering over the herons, turtles and otters that live here.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>After <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Illinois</st1:State></st1:place>
regulators refused to require the Peabody Energy plant to wash its coal and
install additional pollution controls, two commonly used methods to curb
haze-forming chemicals, the scientists urged their bosses at the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to file an appeal.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>They were overruled by political appointees in <st1:State w:st="on">Washington</st1:State>,
who won<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>t join opponents fighting the
project even though the agency still says the power plant to be built near <st1:City
w:st="on">Marissa</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Ill.</st1:State>, about 40
miles southeast of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">St. Louis--</st1:City></st1:place>
would fall short of Clean Air Act rules intended to protect national parks and
wilderness areas.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>The decision raises questions about whether the Bush
administration is interpreting the law to benefit Peabody, the world<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s largest coal company and by far the industry<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s leading campaign contributor. It also highlights
the conflict between an aggressive push for more coal plants and the federal
government<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s obligations to keep air
clean at Mingo and in other treasured areas.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>"This is great for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place><st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s shareholders and for people who don<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>t breathe the air," said John Thompson,
advocacy coordinator for the Clean Air Task Force, one of several environmental
groups challenging the power plant<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s
state permit.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>State officials are promoting the proposed Prairie State
Generating Station as the first of up to 12 new coal plants in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Illinois</st1:State></st1:place>--more than in
any other state. Among other things, they contend the plants are needed if more
restrictive federal pollution laws force older coal plants to shut down.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>"We believe the plant is using clean-coal technology and we
are comfortable with our decision" to approve it, said Laurel Kroack,
chief of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s
air bureau.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Nobody disagrees that the <st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City>
plant would be cleaner than any existing coal plant in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">Illinois</st1:State></st1:place>.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>The question is whether the plant, which would be built 85 miles
northeast of the Mingo refuge, would be clean enough to meet federal laws that
require the best available technology to limit threats to public health and
give special protection to wilderness areas.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Environmental groups also say the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Prairie</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
plant should be compared to other projects that plan to use even cleaner
methods to burn coal, not the energy dinosaurs that were built more than 40
years ago.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Another plant planned for Illinois would burn the same type of
coal as Peabody<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s plant, but its
rate of sulfur dioxide pollution would be about a fifth of Peabody<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s, according to state records.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Thompson said the state<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s
decision to give <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place>
a permit sets a bad precedent.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>"Why build a cleaner plant if your competitor can use
inferior technology, release vastly more pollution and have an adverse impact
on a national wildlife refuge?" he said.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Federal scientists say they likely wouldn<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>t
have a problem with the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place>
plant if it was built with the cleaner technology. But they stopped short of
urging its use, opting instead to suggest that the coal company could take less
dramatic steps to limit haze-forming pollution.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>According to a study by the Fish and Wildlife Service<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s air quality office, the difference would be felt
at the Mingo refuge, the last large patch of hardwood swamp left from what once
spread over 2.5 million acres in southeastern <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">Missouri</st1:State></st1:place>.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Designated as a national wildlife refuge in the mid-1940s, Mingo
reflects the mix of biology and geology where the <st1:place w:st="on">Ozark
Plateau</st1:place> meets Southern bottomlands and Northern hardwood forests.
The <st1:place w:st="on">Mississippi River</st1:place> meandered through the
area until an earthquake along the New Madrid Fault 18,000 years ago shifted
the muddy channel about 60 miles east.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>More than 130,000 people flock to the refuge each year, but
dirty air often hangs over the swamp, as it does in better-known wilderness
areas like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon that are supposed to share the same
protection from air pollution.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Of the 156 wilderness areas that Congress voted to protect under
the Clean Air Act in the late 1970s, Mingo is one of the haziest, according to
federal records. The pollution comes from power-plant smokestacks and vehicle
exhaust blown toward the refuge from miles away.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>"If people are coming here to look and they can<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>t see anything, that<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s
a problem," said Kathleen Burchett, refuge manager at Mingo.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>"I live here and raise my kids here," she said.
"If it<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s bad for the
environment, it<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s bad for us
too."</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>The Illinois EPA awarded <st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City>
a permit to build the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Prairie</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> plant after reviewing
an air-pollution analysis by the company<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s
contractors. That analysis was based on a computer model that federal land
mangers have used for years to predict how new sources of pollution would
affect wilderness areas.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>But the contractors made some changes that altered the results,
leading <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place>
to conclude that the plant would not contribute to haze at the wildlife refuge.
State officials accepted the results over the objections of federal land
managers.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>"The methodology [<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place>]
used was `one-sided,<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>" the Fish
and Wildlife Service concluded in a summary of its discussions with state
regulators. "That is, it only applied these adjustments to the instances
where high impacts were predicted."</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Sandra Silva, chief of the air quality branch at the Fish and
Wildlife Service, said the decision was "one of only three times in the
past 20 years that a state has awarded a permit despite our concerns. We<st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>re extremely surprised and disappointed with the
way this has turned out."</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Peabody</span></font></st1:City></st1:place><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>,
which contributed more than $600,000 to federal candidates and national
political parties during the 2004 election cycle, most of it to Republicans,
urged the wildlife agency to drop its objections. The agency still thinks the
plant would have an "adverse impact" on the Mingo refuge but opted
not to appeal the company<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s permit.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>"It<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s a policy
call," said Paul Hoffman, deputy assistant secretary at the U.S.
Department of the Interior, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service. He
declined to elaborate.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Legal challenges have stalled construction of the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place> plant . If built,
it would provide more electricity than any of the state<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s
older coal plants, but it would be equipped with scrubbers and other equipment
that substantially reduce the amount of air pollution coming out of the
smokestack.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>For instance, the rate of sulfur dioxide emissions from the
plant would be about a fifth of the national average for existing coal plants,
according to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place>.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>"We see this plant as a terrific model and an environmental
solution," said Vic Svec, a <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place>
spokesman.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Although more than three-quarters of the coal mined in the
eastern <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> is
washed to remove sulfur and other impurities, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place> chose instead to rely on equipment that
removes sulfuric gases after the coal is burned. The company also said
installing additional pollution filters requested by federal land managers
wouldn<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>t work because the gases
would be too corrosive.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Blagojevich backs the <st1:City w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City>
project because the company plans to burn coal mined next to the plant,
providing a boost to a beleaguered industry that once provided the economic
backbone of southern <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Illinois</st1:State></st1:place>.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>To meet national limits on sulfur dioxide pollution, most of the
state<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>s utilities switched to low-sulfur
coal from Western states during the last decade rather than installing
pollution controls in order to keep burning high-sulfur <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">Illinois</st1:State></st1:place> coal.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Along with a greater reliance on machines to mine coal, the fuel
switching has devastated many southern <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Illinois</st1:State></st1:place>
communities. The number of coal miners working in the state has dropped to
about 4,000 in 2005 from 18,000 in 1990, according to the Illinois Coal
Association.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Coal companies and their political allies say the only way the
industry will rebound is if new plants are built. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Peabody</st1:City></st1:place> plant is expected to create 2,500
construction jobs and 450 permanent jobs.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>"In the old days, you couldn<st1:PersonName w:st="on">'</st1:PersonName>t
mine <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Illinois</st1:State></st1:place>
coal and protect the quality of our air," Blagojevich said last month in
his State of the State Message. "Now you can."</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New"'>Copyright (c) 2005, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Chicago</st1:City></st1:place>
Tribune</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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