Indiana coal-to-gas project bucks industry trend

In the heart of southwestern Indiana’s coal country, Duke Energy Corp. crews are building what the company’s CEO calls the power plant of the future — a $2.35 billion complex where coal will be turned into a gas, stripped of pollutants, then burned to generate electricity.

The project, one of the “clean coal” technologies supported by President-elect Barack Obama, will become by far the nation’s largest coal-gasification plant when it goes online in 2012, generating enough power to light more than 200,000 homes.

But opponents suing to halt the 630-megawatt plant near Edwardsport, Ind., call it a colossal waste of money that will saddle the utility’s Indiana customers with years of rate increases and release tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas tied to global warming.

“Once you do all the cost assessments, the fact is this is going to gouge ratepayers. The cost of this just continues to skyrocket,” said Bruce Nilles, a Madison, Wis.-based attorney for the Sierra Club, which is suing to stop the plant.

Chicago Tribune