The following is an op-ed by Jack Darin, director of the Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter.
It’s a monster, and it will not die – until Springfield comes their senses.
You may not have heard of Tenaska, but they know about you. Tenaska is an out-of-state corporation that wants to put you on the hook for a very dirty, risky proposition. Tenaska has a deal for you – they build a coal plant, and you have to buy all of their output, for 30 years.
There’s a small catch, of course. Tenaska can’t sell you the power at a fair price, or anywhere near it. They can’t beat the price of wind power. They want to lock you into a rate seven times the current market price. But, if they have their way, the Illinois General Assembly will force you to pay the difference, and to subsidize their coal plant. That is, unless Springfield finally drives the silver spike through this monster, once and for all.
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