New plant for Illinois air pollution

According to PR Newswire US (2004), The Illinois Clean Coal Review Board gives $2.5 million to Steelhead Energy Company LLC for making new coal gasification plant which can help the Illinois coal industry and the Southern Illinois environment. Steelhead Energy indicates that this new plant will not produce much air pollution and this will be “the cleanest coal-fueled energy facilities in the world.” The new plant is able to use coal made from Illinois that will create “545 MW of electricity and 95 million standard cubic feet per day.” The new plant removes pollutants which are sulfur and mercury before burning coal for generation of electricity. In addition, those wastes, such as sulfur and mercury, can be sold for other uses. This method is cleaner than existent coal power plant. So, environmental organizations like this project. Southern Illinois University organized The Illinois Clean Coal Review Board to consider southern Illinois environment and much coal resources. The Steelhead Energy must reward this project for investors.
I believe that this new power plant can aid with cleaning southern Illinois air pollution because that pollution mostly comes from present coal power plants. Moreover, southern Illinois has a large amount of coal, and that is cheaper than other resources for getting energy. So, this plan is a good solution for keeping clean air, getting energy, and maintaining jobs. However, soil pollution might increase for mining coal, because mined coal makes pollutants, such as mercury. That pollutant might go to ground and flow into rivers and lakes. If this plant succeeds decreasing air pollution, the soil pollution problem will be increasing. We need to think about how to be in safe keeping mined coal on the ground.

by Masaki