Activists to talk energy options

Two environmental activists will speak tonight to Batavia residents about the town's investment in a $3 billion coal power plant.

"The only way to figure out what to do is to find out what's happening," said Betsy Zinser of Batavians for Clean Energy and Conservation, which is hosting the event.

Batavia, along with Geneva and Rochelle, have invested in the Prairie State Energy Campus in downstate Lively Grove, just southeast of St. Louis. St. Charles will also buy power from the campus through its involvement with the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency.

When the coal plant is up and running, scheduled for 2012, it will supply 40 percent to 50 percent of the city's electricity.

The three towns, known collectively as the Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency, have issued $319 million in bonds toward the project. They don't have to start paying them back until the plant starts producing electricity, said Gary Larsen, group president and director of public works for Batavia.

The city has spent $2 million on the project so far, he said.

When completed, the plant will be the cleanest coal plant in the United States, with $1 billion spent on emission control equipment, Larsen said.

Virginia Babcock, a member of the conservation group, said she would prefer the city invest in cleaner or renewable forms of energy.

"There's environmental damage from any coal power plant to the air," she said. "However state-of-the-art they make it, we're not sure it's something we want to promote in Illinois."

Municipalities will own about 90 percent of the plant. Zinser said that although the city has already invested in the project, a consortium of towns could change the way it is run if there's a specific problem.

Larsen said although the plant is not a "perfect solution," it's the best one for Batavia.

"We don't have the option to do nothing," he said. "Our electricity load is growing, and we have to provide for our citizens."

The city is pursuing other electricity options, including wind energy, he said.

The forum, featuring an environmental activist from southern Illinois and another from the Environmental Law and Policy Center of Chicago, will be at 7 p.m. today at the Batavia Congregational Church, 21 S. Batavia Ave.