Illinois Residents Sue Over Prairie State Coal Plant
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Electric customers in Batavia, Ill., are suing promoters of the Prairie State Energy Campus, accusing them of misrepresenting construction and electricity costs in order to persuade the Chicago exurb to participate in the plan to build the troubled coal plant.
Nine Batavia residents are seeking class action status in their lawsuit, filed Monday in Kane County Circuit Court against the Indiana Municipal Power Agency and its CEO, Raj Rao.
The lawsuit also names a subsidiary of the Indiana Municipal Group and a Chicago consulting and engineering firm. Rao did not return a call for comment.
Delays and cost overruns have plagued the 1,600 megawatt coal plant that has since 2012 supplied electricity to public power agencies in several Midwestern states, including Missouri and Illinois. Some towns that signed on to the project say they were promised cheap coal power but are paying far more for electricity and are on the hook for a construction tab that ballooned from less than $2 billion to more than $5 billion.
The original promoter of the plant and adjacent coal mine 50 miles southeast of downtown was St. Louis-based coal miner Peabody Energy. Peabody retains a 5.06 percent interest in the campus, according to the company’s financial disclosures.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Electric customers in Batavia, Ill., are suing promoters of the Prairie State Energy Campus, accusing them of misrepresenting construction and electricity costs in order to persuade the Chicago exurb to participate in the plan to build the troubled coal plant.
Nine Batavia residents are seeking class action status in their lawsuit, filed Monday in Kane County Circuit Court against the Indiana Municipal Power Agency and its CEO, Raj Rao.
The lawsuit also names a subsidiary of the Indiana Municipal Group and a Chicago consulting and engineering firm. Rao did not return a call for comment.
Delays and cost overruns have plagued the 1,600 megawatt coal plant that has since 2012 supplied electricity to public power agencies in several Midwestern states, including Missouri and Illinois. Some towns that signed on to the project say they were promised cheap coal power but are paying far more for electricity and are on the hook for a construction tab that ballooned from less than $2 billion to more than $5 billion.
The original promoter of the plant and adjacent coal mine 50 miles southeast of downtown was St. Louis-based coal miner Peabody Energy. Peabody retains a 5.06 percent interest in the campus, according to the company’s financial disclosures.
Read more in our daily News Update...