Coal

As Illinois considers ways to achieve its goal of relying entirely on clean energy by 2050, one technology that has courted controversy is carbon capture.

Ameren Missouri plans to buy a solar power plant in Bowling Green, Missouri, that could produce energy by 2024. The announcement comes days after it shared plans to open a natural gas plant. Both facilities need approval from Missouri’s Public Service Commission.

Missouri environmental groups are decrying proposed state rules that would allow power plants to discharge contaminants like coal ash into groundwater through a general permit for multiple facilities. Power plants currently have individual, site-specific permits.

The coal ash basins at Labadie Energy Center contain 15 million cubic yards of waste, the largest volume of Ameren’s four coal-fired power plants in Missouri.

The move was part of a series of steps the agency said it would take to protect communities from harmful coal ash contamination.

Ameren Missouri announced it will close its Rush Island coal plant in Festus over the next few years

Illinois lawmakers are considering a clean energy proposal that would force almost all coal-fired plants in the state to close by 2035. The plan has environmental groups excited, but it’s also drawing concern from the municipalities that are stakeholders of plants in downstate Illinois.

Burning fossil fuels has created a massive, global problem: climate change. New research from Washington University finds these fuel sources also have serious health consequences.

Environmental advocates say water used for cooling Ameren’s Labadie Energy Center, along with toxic contaminants leaching from coal ash ponds, pose a risk to wildlife and the surrounding area.

Negotiators backed down from a plan that would have forced coal plants to close by 2035.