By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – Environmentalists and area residents used the Peabody Energy company's annual shareholder meeting Friday to blast the company's proposal to build a new coal-fired power plant in southern Illinois.
The group claims the facility will emit as much as 25,000 tons of pollution each year.
Kathy Andria with the American Bottom Conservancy says the company's plan to use a coal pulverization method first developed in the 1920's is not the cleanest possible technology.
"But if Peabody would build a coal gasification plant, there would be one-fifth the emissions of Prairie State," Andria said. "That would be much more beneficial to the southern Illinois economy and the health of its citizens."
A Peabody spokeswoman Beth Sutton says gasification is not a commercially proven method. Sutton insists the plant will employ stringent pollution control measures that will produce one-fifth the emissions of an average coal-fired plant:.
"We will remove 98 percent of the sulfur dioxide from the emissions; we will
remove 99.9 percent of the particulates from the emissions. We also will work to
control mercury," Sutton said. "So this is a project that really represents a new generation of coal-fueled power."
Last week, the state of Illinois issued an air permit for the plant.
Sutton says construction is expected to take four years.