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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More from @SeanCasten

31 May
A few thoughts on this Memorial Day about patriotism. From the speech I gave this morning in Glen Ellyn here, but in a condensed thread here for you Twitter-philes.
m.facebook.com/castenforcongr…
1/ Memorial Day is a holiday that more than any other, forces us to think about what it means to be patriotic.
2/ First because of it's history. In 1865 African Americans in Charleston SC held the first remembrance of those they lost. A year later, white women in Columbus MS did the same to honor Confederates. The national holiday honoring all war dead didn't come until 1971.
Read 15 tweets
28 May
I'm proud to represent #IL06, the district once represented by Henry Hyde. And I'm delighted to see @POTUS proposing a budget that finally gets rid of my predecessor's anti-choice legacy. politico.com/news/2021/05/2…
1/ The data is unambiguous: reducing access to abortions doesn't reduce the incidence of abortions. It just reduces their safety. Take away the access to safe procedures and women die.
2/ The Hyde Amendment, therefore has the practical effect only of compromising the health of lower income women who depend on government-provided healthcare. It is evil and inhumane.
Read 5 tweets
27 May
For those curious about why I've been saying that @FERC is key to reaching our climate goals - read this. canarymedia.com/articles/lbnls…
Enough clean gen in the queue to get half way to a zero-carbon grid (e.g., developers want to build them) but held back by delays in grid-interconnection rules.
If we want clean energy... if we want cheap energy, we have to fix the barriers imposed by a system and governance process that is overwhelmingly biased to preserve the status quo.
Read 4 tweets
24 May
This morning, I woke up to a story about an antisemitic act in IL06. We had received no calls from constituents, nor were we able to confirm it occurred. I am not going to re-tweet it, but it is cause for a brief discussion of Israel, Palestine and social media disinformation
1/ First, there is no conflict between being pro-Israel and being committed to human rights for everyone living in Gaza and the West Bank.
2/ If that is your view as well, the cycle of attacks and counter attacks every 3 - 7 years is the irreducible problem. Our goal must be to ensure that we aren't having this same conversation 5 years from now.
Read 9 tweets
19 May
A brief thread on what happened on the floor today. Because you all need to understand the Q-Knucklehead caucus and the utter failure of leadership that is @GOPLeader:
1/ I'm not naming them because they don't deserve the attention. But you know who they are.
2/ The House physician has advised that members who are vaccinated no longer need wear masks. But because so many members of the House (exclusively, in the Q-Knucklehead caucus) are not vaccinated, we are still asked to wear masks on the floor. wral.com/list-house-mem…
Read 10 tweets
18 May
This is a jaw-dropping report from the IEA; partly because of their conclusion, but also because of who they are. Time for an overdue #energytwitter nerd thread on transitions: nytimes.com/2021/05/18/cli…
1/ First, if you read this and think "making the kind of transitions that IEA recommends would be massively disruptive", you're right.
2/ Rapidly phasing out gasoline vehicles has huge impacts on manufacturing & maintenance chains. Blocking new oil & gas leases impacts everyone mid-career and earlier in that sector. Debt and equity holders would see massive write-offs of capital that hasn't yet been amortized
Read 18 tweets

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