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Statement of Taylorville Energy Center Developer in Response to Sierra Club IEPA Air Permit Appeal

Posted on: Monday, 9 July 2007, 21:19 CDT

Today, the Sierra Club of Illinois appealed the landmark air permit issued June 6 by Illinois EPA to the developers of the Taylorville Energy Center (TEC), a 630 megawatt clean coal Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power generation facility. In response, Greg Kunkel, vice president for environmental affairs at project managing partner Tenaska, issued the following statement:

"While we have not yet seen Sierra's appeal and so cannot comment on its specifics, we know Illinois EPA did an excellent job in drafting our air permit and are confident that the Environmental Appeals Board will deny the appeal. We do not expect this to cause significant delay for our project.

Our focus now is working with the Illinois General Assembly to pass provisions of the Clean Coal Program Law. Passage of this bill would allow us to privately finance construction of the plant. Once regulators require power generators to reduce carbon emissions, IGCC plants like TEC will be able to respond faster and more cost effectively than their conventional counterparts.

At Tenaska, we are very proud that following an extremely rigorous two year process, Illinois EPA issued an air permit for the Taylorville Energy Center with the most stringent environmental standards ever announced for a U.S. coal plant. Taylorville will emit only a tiny fraction of the sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter released by an average coal plant and will also be more fuel efficient, meaning it will use less fuel to produce more electricity. As one of the most carbon-efficient U.S. energy producers (according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council), we at Tenaska are excited to be building the cleanest coal plant in the world.

We were naturally disappointed to see Sierra Club take this position. By appealing this air permit, Sierra is attempting to obstruct the commercialization of revolutionary clean coal technology, which is an essential next step in the fight against global warming.

It's particularly disappointing that Sierra has taken this position while public health and environmental organizations like the American Lung Association of Illinois and Clean Air Task Force recognize what an enormous advance this plant will be over all previous coal plants."

For more information, please consult www.cleancoalillinois.com

Source: Business Wire

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