Monitoring the nearly $5 billion Illinois coal plant and its impact on ratepayers and municipalities across the Midwest.
Read the IssuesThe Prairie State Energy Campus in Washington County, Illinois was supposed to deliver affordable, reliable energy to dozens of municipalities and utilities across the Midwest. Instead, it has become one of the most controversial energy projects in American history — burdening local governments with costs nearly double current market prices and locking them into take-or-pay contracts that afford investors strong protections while ratepayers bear the risk.
Nine joint power agencies and energy cooperatives purchased ownership stakes by issuing billions in municipal debt. As construction costs ballooned and natural gas prices collapsed, the economics of Prairie State deteriorated dramatically. Local utilities are now paying significantly more for Prairie State power than they would on the open market, with those costs passed directly to residential and commercial ratepayers.