Franklin County Power Plant

Franklin County Power Plant is a coal plant proposed by EnviroPower, to be built near Benton in Franklin County, Illinois.

The Illinois EPA issued an air permit in 2001; however, EnviroPower did not begin construction until 2004. In October 2006, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the air permit had expired in 2003, and halted construction on the plant. Because significant time has passed since the original air permit was granted, the plant proposal is outdated and EnviroPower must now consider current anti-pollution technology.

In October 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago rejected Enviropower’s efforts to build the power plant. The ruling upheld the 2006 decision that halted all construction on the project. The Court's decision effectively ends Enviropower’s seven-year effort to build the plant without modern pollution controls.

Project Details
Sponsor: EnviroPower Location: Benton, Illinois Size: 600 MW Type: circulating fluidized bed Projected in service: 2007 Status: Cancelled

Citizen Groups

 * Illinois Sierra Club, Verena Owen, verena.owen [at] sierraclub.org, or Bruce Nilles, bruce.nilles [at] sierraclub.org

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Kentucky Mountain Power
 * Sullivan County Plant
 * Illinois and coal
 * Carbon Capture and Storage
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * US proposed coal plants (both active and cancelled)
 * Coal plants cancelled in 2007
 * Coal plants cancelled in 2008
 * Illinois and coal
 * State-by-state guide to information on coal in the United States (or click on the map)