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Every aspect of the Prairie State Energy Campus is being designed to ensure our environment is protected. Here are just a few examples of the many ways in which we are committed to the environment:
- Approval has been received on all state and federal regulations designed to protect the area’s water supplies, as well as our other most treasured natural resources.
- Prairie State Energy Campus includes investments of over $500 million in state-of-the-art technologies to create the cleanest coal plant in Illinois and one of the cleanest in the country. Thanks to these technologies, we are building upon the environmental successes of the industry to help produce the clean, reliable and affordable energy that our country desperately needs.
- The Campus' total emissions will be dramatically lower than the average U.S. coal plant.
- Even its carbon dioxide emissions, which are not regulated, will be approximately 15 percent lower than the typical U.S. coal plant. As a result, the Campus’ carbon management capabilities will compare favorably to other coal-based electric technologies. Prairie State Energy Campus is part of a balanced energy portfolio that can help transition to lower intensity carbon generation.
- The Campus also ‘nets out’ positively from a total carbon footprint perspective due to its mine-mouth design, allowing it to avoid the additional fossil fuel consumption of fuel transportation.
- While opponents have tried to challenge the Campus’ development, Prairie State Energy Campus enjoys tremendous community support in southern Illinois, based on the Campus’ ability to generate low-cost electricity, create economic progress and protect the environment.
Here are just a few examples of the environmental progress made by the electric power industry:
- America’s generating plants comply with some of the most stringent environmental regulations in the world. Coal used for U.S. electricity generation has tripled since 1970, while criteria emissions have been reduced by more than half.
- The electric power industry has made significant progress in protecting human health and safe-guarding the environment. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, between 1980 and 2007, America’s gross domestic product increased 124 percent, vehicle miles traveled increased 103 percent, energy consumption rose 30 percent and the U.S. population grew
- 33 percent. During that same period, total emissions of regulated pollutants decreased 52 percent.
- The calculus of any cost-effective, reliable supply and demand equation for energy in the United States will not be solved without an increase in capacity, or without coal as a significant source of that capacity. With sensible regulations and further development of clean coal technologies, coal can provide the United States with dependable, affordable energy reserves for the next two centuries while continuing to improve its environmental profile.
