By AP/KWMU
Carterville, Ill. – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan says pending federal rules on mercury emissions would put Illinois coal at a disadvantage.
Ryan says he agrees with his opponent, Democratic Senate nominee Barack Obama, that the proposed rules should be changed so they don't favor Western coal over the kind mined in the Midwest.
Obama made his comments after touring Southern Illinois University's clean-coal research plant in Carterville Thursday with U.S. Senator Dick Durbin.
Dozens of Illinois coal mines were closed in the 1980s and '90s after the Clean Air Act made it too dirty to burn economically.
Obama says the government should support research into ways to burn Illinois coal cleanly.