Responding to concerns of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups, the Illinois EPA will reconsider an air pollution permit it granted to Tenaska Inc. in April for a coal-to-gas plant proposed for Taylorville, located near Springfield.
The agency will re-evaluate its decision to license the plant without requiring that its carbon dioxide emissions be captured and sequestered underground.
Tenaska, a Nebraska-based company, which proposes to turn coal into natural gas to generate electricity had stated in appeals to the Illinois General Assembly that the plant’s greenhouse gas emissions would be captured and injected underground and has asked the Illinois EPA to consider including limits for carbon dioxide in its permit.
In its final decision, the Illinois EPA did not included the limits stating that the technology would not be feasible but the Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club filed an appeal in May, arguing that under the Clean Air Act the company must use the best technology available to control emissions. The environmental groups argued that the IEPA dismissed the technology’s feasibility without performing site-specific analysis.