EmberClear gas plant approved; permit 'inconsistent' with state commitments, say opponents

PAWNEE — The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has given the go-ahead to a Texas-based company to build an 1,100-megawatt natural gas-powered plant just south of Springfield over the objections of environmental groups.

While the $1.5 billion project by EmberClear to construct the 160-acre Lincoln Land Energy Center near Pawnee runs counter to the state's increased development of clean energy projects, the company insisted it will be compliant ahead of the state’s goal of eliminating power-plant carbon emissions by 2045.

The plant is expected to begin commercial operations by 2025.

A study funded by the Springfield Sangamon County Growth Alliance predicted that it would have a $1.5 billion economic impact during construction. The plant is expected to create 35 permanent jobs along with 400 to 700 construction jobs.

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The city of Springfield and Sangamon County have approved measures allowing tax breaks for construction costs.

The gas plant will run on methane, a greenhouse gas, Sierra Club Illinois claimed in a statement, that traps over 70 times more heat than carbon dioxide.

In December, local residents and advocates attended a public hearing in Pawnee and delivered over 2,000 comments to the IEPA in opposition of the plant.

The comments expressed local community members’ concerns about the proposed gas plant’s proximity to people’s homes and schools − it is less than a mile away from the town's high school − as well as long-term concerns about the plant’s effect on public health and the environment.

Pawnee mayor Jeff Clarke said most people who live in the town are for the construction, though some are against it.

"A lot of people don't pay enough attention to stuff until it's right there in front of them because this has been going on for five-and-a-half years," Clarke said.

Among the town, Pawnee Township, the school district and the fire protection district there's about $50 million on the table, Clarke figured, "and that's not counting the tax revenue we would get from goods and services from 1,000 construction (workers) working there for eight years. It's a huge deal. It's an absolutely big deal."

The building permit, said Nick Dodson of Springfield, an executive committee member with the Sangamon Valley Group of Sierra Club Illinois, "is inconsistent with Illinois’ climate commitments.”

“Building dirty, expensive plants like the Lincoln Land Energy Center is unnecessary given that over 7,000 megawatts of clean energy projects are in the queue, and many more projects are on the way thanks to the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act’s plan for our 100% clean energy future," Dodson said.

John Kinnamon, EmberClear's vice president for Midwest development, told The State Journal-Register in December the plant would be the world’s most efficient natural gas power generator and will help ease the transition from coal to carbon-free power.

“This facility will be compliant with the law in 2045," Kinnamon insisted. "Gas is part of the strategy to convert to lower carbon emissions.”

The IEPA’s draft permit would allow the plant to release more than 3.9 million metric tons of carbon-equivalent emissions each year, countered Meghan Hassett, the Midwest Clean Energy Advocate for the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The output, Hassett noted in her blog, is the equivalent of roughly twice the impact of unretiring the three Dallman coal-fired units that shut down here.

Clarke said he envisioned some sort of non-binding referendum being put in front of voters.

"They're building it in the county, so it's coming whether we want it or not," Clarke pointed out. "So the question will be do you want to participate in it? In other words, do you want the financial windfall?"

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Natural gas-fired plant south of Springfield gets building permit