Energy=money

Citation

(2003), "Energy=money", Work Study, Vol. 52 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2003.07952gab.004

Energy=money

Energy=money

A new study prepared by Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) reveals that Peabody Energy's planned Prairie State Energy Campus would inject about $2.8 billion into the Illinois economy in new spending, job creation and induced economic activity over three decades of operation.

Prairie State would be sited in Washington County and is a planned 1,500 megawatt electric generation facility that would be fuelled by more than six million tons of coal produced each year from an adjacent underground mine. The campus is designed to provide electricity for up to 1.5 million families and is anticipated to begin generation in 2008. Campus operations would annually inject $93 million into the Illinois economy and create approximately 450 skilled, permanent Illinois jobs with wages that are estimated to be more than 40 per cent higher than the state average.

"We know from multiple studies that increasingly clean electricity from coal drives down energy costs, creates twice the economic benefits as natural gas, and helps Americans live longer and better", said Peabody Executive Vice President of Corporate Development Roger B. Walcott Jr. "Prairie State will be among the cleanest coal-fuelled plants east of the Mississippi River, providing low-cost electricity and accelerating economic growth."

Less than half of Illinois electricity comes from coal, and consumers pay higher electricity prices than neighbouring states that all use significantly more coal-fuelled generation. For example, the average cost of electricity in Illinois is nearly 72 per cent higher than Kentucky, which derives about 94’per cent of its electricity from coal.