 The St. Louis-based utility will shut down plants in Meredosia and
Hutsonville. Ninety jobs will be eliminated, though Ameren said it
is seeking other places where the 22 management and 68 union workers
can be reassigned.In July, the EPA issued the Cross-State Air
Pollution Rule, which requires reductions in sulfur dioxide by 73
percent and nitrogen oxide by 54 percent from 2005 levels. Ameren
said other, more restrictive regulations on coal-fired generating
plants are expected in the coming months and years.
"Numerous options to bring these units into compliance were
explored, including installing additional environmental controls,
but the costs were just too high to be justified," said Steven
Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of Ameren Energy
Resources Co., the holding company of Ameren. "We regret the impact
this will have on our employees and the communities where these
plants have been important to the local economies."
Coal-burning power plants are the leading source of carbon
dioxide emissions that experts blame for global warming.
The two plants provided about 4 percent of Ameren Energy
Resources' total generation over the past two years, the company
said. Ameren serves about 2.4 million electric customers in Missouri
and Illinois, along with about 1 million natural gas customers in
the two states. Ameren said customers will see no impact from the
closures.
The plant in Meredosia is also a proposed site that would have
provided electrical generation as part of a scaled-down version of
the FutureGen project. FutureGen calls for an experimental plant
that would burn coal for power but store emissions of carbon dioxide
underground. The project is backed by a consortium of big energy and
utility companies.
Former President George W. Bush first announced plans for
FutureGen in 2003. The proposal has faced a variety of setbacks,
resulting in a revised plan known as FutureGen 2.0.
[to top of second column] |
"Ceasing current operations at Meredosia has no impact on the
viability of FutureGen 2.0," Sullivan said. "FutureGen is still
several years from needing a generating unit to test clean coal
technology. We are currently in discussions with the FutureGen
Alliance to determine how Meredosia Unit 4 could best be used for
this project."
Ameren also cited a lack of a multiyear capacity market managed
by the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator as a factor
in closing the plants.
"Without the ability to sell capacity several years out, we
cannot afford to make the substantial investment for environmental
controls that would be required to keep these units in service,"
Sullivan said.
Ameren expects the closures to result in a charge to
third-quarter earnings. The company also expects to incur other
costs related to employee severance and the plant closures, though
those costs have not yet been determined.
[Associated Press]
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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