2009.11.30 Press Release
Sierra Club Appeals Power Holdings Coal Gasification Permit
Contact: Becki Clayborn, Regional Representative, Sierra Club, 312-251-1680 x9
Requests limits on global warming emissions in light of pending federal action
CHICAGO--Sierra Club today filed an appeal of a permit issued by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to Power Holdings of Illinois, LLC for a coal gasification plant near Waltonville in Southern Illinois. The appeal was filed in Washington D.C. with the federal Environmental Appeals Board, citing the need for global warming emissions limits in the permit.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases represent a significant threat to public health and welfare. This "endangerment finding" begins the federal process to regulate global warming pollution from large sources, such as cars and coal-fired power plants. And just last week, the U.S. EPA held two national public hearings regarding the new rule which will regulate large sources of global warming emissions, like the Power Holdings coal gasification plant.
“It is reckless for the IEPA to issue this air permit without limits on global warming emissions, especially since the U.S. EPA is moving forward with federal standards for global warming emissions from power plants RIGHT NOW.” says Becki Clayborn, Regional Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “Companies like Power Holdings are desperately trying to get their permits before the federal global warming emissions rules are in place, in hopes that they will not have to comply with the new rule. That is not acceptable.”
The proposed plant, if built, will gasify five million tons of coal annually into 65 billion cubic feet of synthetic natural gas and produce 10 million tons of CO2 each year, which is equivalent to adding 1.8 million cars to the road.
Although Sierra Club is appealing the permit primarily on global warming emissions concerns, local farmers and neighbors also have concerns about water usage, light pollution, noise pollution and the siting of this facility on top of a fault line. Some 250 local citizens packed a public hearing on the air permit held by IEPA in March of this year, most raising concerns about how this facility will affect their quality of life, health and safety and property values. The area is currently rural farmland.
Kathy Andria, conservation chair of the Kaskaskia Group of the Sierra Club, has serious reservations about the company: “There are so many unanswered questions with Power Holdings and their answers seem to change depending upon who is asking the questions and when they are asked. I am also concerned about the suitability of the site for such a facility.”
Linda Borowiak, whose farm sits a mile from the Power Holdings site, has researched the many potential problems with the facility and its siting above one fault zone and very near another. She has worked to inform her neighbors of her findings. “I’ve also learned a lot about climate change and its impacts on our community,” said Borowiak. “We have run the gamut here from a drought nearly drying up our water supply to having so much rain that farmers had trouble planting and harvesting their crops.”
“We were late getting our crops in because of all the rain in the spring and I just now got my crops harvested the week before Thanksgiving after record October rainfall,” said Mark Spotanski, whose farm borders the proposed site. “The fields are so wet and the ground so soft that some of my neighbors have still not been able to harvest their corn. That is their income, how they feed their families.”
Spotanski and Borowiak both expressed extreme disappointment with IEPA’s decision to issue the permit. “IEPA seems not to have listened to our concerns,” said Spotanski. “I am concerned for my family and our neighbors, our land and water and livestock, our property values and our safety. This plant would sit over a fault zone. It will pollute our air and water, its lights would impact our crop production, and the whole thing could potentially explode.”
Neighbor Borowiak agrees and is grateful the appeal is being filed: "It’s the wrong plant in the wrong place and, with the urgent impacts to the planet and our community from global warming, it is certainly the wrong time."
A copy of the appeal will be posted on the EAB website www.epa.gov/eab/.
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Contact: Becki Clayborn, Regional Representative, Sierra Club, 312-251-1680 x9