Illinois state attorney battles power plant construction
By Joe Truini

March 24 - The Illinois attorney general has joined the fray involving a battle to site two new coal-fired power units in Wisconsin.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed an amicus brief in the Wisconsin Supreme Court backing 10 local and national public health and environmental groups and SC Johnson in trying to stop We Energies from building the two 615-megawatt units at its Oak Creek, Wis., site. The court will hear oral arguments March 30 to determine whether the company can move forward with construction.

We Energies, a subsidiary of Wisconsin Energy Corp., received state permission in 2003 to build the units. The plant currently produces 1,200 megawatts of electricity through its four units. The company has retired four other older units at the site, and adding the two new coal-fired generators is part of its larger plan to provide power to the state, which desperately needs it, said We Energies spokesman Thad Nation.

"Wisconsin is, in many ways, a utility island," he said.

But opposition has stifled progress. Dane County Circuit Court Judge David Flanagan ruled to vacate the Wisconsin Public Service Commission´s construction permit for the units. We Energies appealed the decision directly to the state Supreme Court.

"For more than three years, we have been raising concerns related to the damage two new dirty coal plants will do to the environment, public health and the economy of Southeast Wisconsin," said Katie Nekola, a spokeswoman for Clean Wisconsin.

Despite doubling the power plant´s production, the two new units, along with additional pollution controls on the existing four units, will result in a 50 percent reduction in total emissions from the site, Nation said.

"When you´re talking to people about building coal plants, they have visions of coal plants from the ´50s, ´60s and ´70s. The technology is night and day," he said. "Coal is a four-letter word."