Prairie State is being EXTREMELY disingenuous here. Coal-fired power is neither cheap nor clean. Their statement here suggests to the contrary and needs clarification. #energytwitter #nerdthread wbez.org/stories/pritzk… 
1/ Backstory: IL state regulators are in the midst of negotiations to try and shut down high CO2 power sources like Prairie State. Those negotiations are still on-going and have no federal nexus. But their statement is made within that context.
2/ The plant has been a boondoggle since it was built. Over-budget, over-schedule and consistently forcing users to pay way more for electricity than they would have otherwise. See here for details: rmi.org/insight/transi…
3/ So why not just shut it down? Because when it was financed the developers (Peabody Energy primarily) structured a bunch of power purchase agreements ("PPAs") with municipalities throughout the midwest that were actually bond guarantees.
4/ Those contracts forced cities and towns throughout the region not only to buy the power from this facility, but also to pay a price that would provide 100% capital cost recovery, inclusive of any construction cost over-runs. These were all negotiated and locked in early.
5/ (I was aware of this because I was a clean energy power developer at the time and had contacts with a lot of the folks involved.)
6/ It was abundantly clear to anyone with expertise in the power industry that they were never going to meet the capital cost projections in their proforma - and so the towns would be paying a lot more for power than the rosy projections they were told.
7/ But the folks marketing the power were good sales people. And the towns were, in general not especially sophisticated buyers. They relied on people they trusted, who in turn took advantage of them.
8/ That now leaves IL in a situation where if they do what is good for the environment AND the economy, those municipalities are contractually stuck paying off bond-holders at above market rates. I don't envy the challenge IL regulators are grappling with.
9/ But this is the result of a power plant that is uneconomic and dirty and never should have been built, but managed to find a sweetheart financial structure that puts all the obligation on cities and towns throughout the midwest.
10/ So let's be more clear about what Prairie State's PR people are saying: "Do what you will to penalize local towns. But the interests of our bondholders are sacrosanct, no matter what the impact on our environment or economy."
11/ As a pure matter of contract law, that may narrowly be true. But it's deeply unethical. Which is on-brand given their history. Rant over. /fin
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