Coal

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EPA Approves Permit for Peabody Plant

Wednesday August 30, 2:23 pm ET

By Jim Suhr, AP Business Writer

Peabody Energy Gets Nod From EPA for Illinois Coal-Fired Power Plant

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Peabody Energy Corp. pressed ahead Wednesday with plans for a $2 billion power plant in southern Illinois after getting federal approval of an emissions permit environmentalists could continue to challenge.

The ruling by an Environmental Protection Agency appeals board last week affirms the issuance of the permit by Illinois' EPA for the proposed Prairie State Energy Campus. The project is to include a 1,500-megawatt, coal-fired power plant near a mine.

Bruce Nilles of the Sierra Club's Midwest Clean Energy Campaign was disappointed with the ruling, saying the federal "EPA had the opportunity to require Peabody to put forward a cleaner, safer project but instead rubber-stamped what the state had done."

The Sierra Club and other environmental and public health groups argued that the plant would release high levels of sulfur dioxide, mercury and other pollutants into the air and harm visibility in southeast Missouri's Mingo National Wildlife Refuge.

Peabody's Sutton said the new plant will have advanced pollution controls, including scrubbers that will remove 99.9 percent of fine particles and 98 percent of sulfur dioxide; Nilles countered that the project "will be adding to the existing pollution problem."

St. Louis-based Peabody, the world's largest private coal company, said its latest regulatory victory means it can line up construction and operating partners -- and financing -- for the project.

Shares of Peabody Energy fell $1.04, or 2.3 percent, to $43.33 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Peabody Energy: http://www.peabodyenergy.com

Illinois Sierra Club: http://illinois.sierraclub.org