Illinois May Pose the Greatest Opposition to Obama's Plans on Global Warming

If President-elect Barack Obama is serious about curtailing U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases, he may find that his biggest hurdle is his home state of Illinois. For Illinois is one of the top greenhouse gas engines in the country, if not the top one, and the development plans backed by the Democratic Party establishment will increase the production of climate changing gases.

Illinois' claim to the greenhouse gas title rests on its dependence on two of the dirtiest sources of fossil fuel energy: coal and tar sands.

According to the U.S. government's Energy Information Agency, coal-fired power plants produce approximately 34 percent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere in the United States, and Illinois is fifth in the nation in coal power generation. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, has pushed coal power as the key to the state's economic future.

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Electric Technology Laboratory reported that during the Blagojevich administration, Illinois has entertained more proposals for new coal-based electric power plants than any other state. The proposed plants approved by the state government would account for more than 10 percent of the generating capacity of all proposed coal-fired power plants nationwide. Environmental groups have contested many of those approvals before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and federal courts.

And while three of the five top coal power generating states -- Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas -- are reducing their reliance on coal, lllinois' dependence is increasing. Electricity from coal projects moving forward in Illinois will increase the coal power generation capacity in that state more than 20 percent.

A recent decision by an appeals board of the U.S. EPA could steer the president-elect into an early confrontation with his home state. On November 13, 2008, the Environmental Appeals Board, an independent body of adjudicators within the Environmental Protection Agency, ordered the agency to consider whether to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants before it approves construction of new coal-fired power plants. The decision came in response to an appeal from the Sierra Club of EPA permit for construction of a new coal-fired power plant in Utah. Carbon dioxide is the most common of the greenhouse gases.

Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel David Bookbinder said the decision will delay construction of any proposed coal-fired power plant in the U.S. by at least a year. It puts pressure on the new Obama administration to either reverse course or proceed to regulate industrial carbon dioxide releases, not just from power plants, but also from petroleum refineries and other industrial facilities.

The appeals board based its ruling on a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year in Massachusetts v. EPA that declared that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

What is Clean?

As a Senator and candidate for president, Obama supported "clean coal." Blagojevich likewise portrays his energy policy as advancing "clean coal."

A spokesperson for Blagojevich's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Marcelyn Love, said,"Coal is very important to Illinois' economy, and will be even more so in the future."

In 2002, Illinois initiated a Coal Revival Program, which provides grants to assist with the development of new, coal-fired electric power plants. In July 2003, Blagojevich signed legislation that expanded the program by offering $300 million in state-backed bonds to help finance the construction of "advanced technology" coal-fueled projects. Two years later, he signed legislation that expanded the program to include coal gasification plants or integrated gasification-combined cycle plants. On Oct. 12, 2006, he announced $3 million in state grants to help Power Holdings of Illinois, LLC develop a plant to produce synthetic gas from coal.