Prairie State Coal Powerplant

[little egyptian]

The Prairie State Coal Fired Powerplant being built in Washington County, Illinois by Peabody Coal is making good progress. Here is an update from The Southern.



Here is the project's webpage. The power will go to the Midwest, but much of it looks to be going east to Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, etc. Some will serve Missouri and Illinois, including some metro-Chicago markets. It is expected to employ 500 permanent positions.



The cooling tower is rising now. I am not sure how far away folks will be able to see it, but I would imagine pretty far and some of the Metro East will be able to see it. Freeburg, for instance, will probably be able to see the tower itself. More importantly, though, will be the smoke from the tower which should be visible from most of the southern Metro-East area. I would imagine the smoke will be visible from the Arch in the mornings and evenings. I have seen the smoke from Baldwin frequently in the evenings and this should be a similar distance away.



Anyway, a new addition (although an arguably not so pleasant one) to the skyline is making significant progress now.

[shimmy]

This is a good thing. Coal is a huge part of the Southern Illinois economy and it has taken a hit ever since the switch to low-sulfur or whatever it was. I don't really know the specifics, just know that it was bad for the area. It's good to see this progress.

[little egyptian]

This is a good thing. Coal is a huge part of the Southern Illinois economy and it has taken a hit ever since the switch to low-sulfur or whatever it was. I don't really know the specifics, just know that it was bad for the area. It's good to see this progress.

The low-sulfer was just an excuse to weaken the unions in Southern Illinois.



I have not heard anything about the UMWA being part of this project. Maybe they are and I have not heard about it, but I am assuming that Peabody will try to keep this a non-union mine and powerplant. We'll see, but I know a lot of other functioning mines in Southern Illinois right now are non-union. This company for instance, has several mines in SI and they are non-union I believe.

[little egyptian]

Here is a video the Southern Illinoisan did on the current construction progress with several pictures. It also interviews the CEO of the project.

[juiceinkirkwood]

I thought the low sulfur reasoning was a result of the clean air act.



Coal mines will be re-opening in southern Illinois because a federal law, starting in 2009, says that coal mines must have the scrubbers that "clean" the coal. So there is no reason not to penetrate.



And Arch Coal, St. Louis' own, and #2 coal producer in the US (behind Peabody), owns part of the Knight Hawk reserve.

[little egyptian]

There are some construction photos posted on their website. The tower is getting taller. The mass of cranes is sort of a cool sight. Wish we saw more of this in the region.