Coal is not dead – and it's alive and well in southwestern Illinois, where Peabody Energy's mining-and-generating Prairie State Energy Campus is due to come on line later this year with 1,600 megawatts.
The mine-mouth complex "could be the new model for the struggling coal industry," CNN Money reported in December. Prairie State's two units will burn 6.3 million tons of high-sulfur coal yearly, CoalAge said in its report on the mine-and-burn facility.
Energy Central carried a McClatchy Newspapers report that noted that the celebration for Prairie State comes amid less-cheerful events in the coal industry.
Last week, "Two power companies announced that 10 aging plants will be phased out in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania,"it said.
