Groups Challenge Dynegy Coal Bailout at Illinois Pollution Control Board

Environmental organizations filed a motion on Friday to halt hearings on Dynegy’s proposal, which would weaken pollution standards for the company’s coal-fired power plants in central and southern Illinois, until its merger with Vistra is complete. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Sierra Club, and Respiratory Health Association (RHA) are asking to stay hearings for a rule before the Illinois Pollution Control Board that was drafted with substantial input from Dynegy. The proposed changes would allow Dynegy’s fleet to pollute nearly double the sulfur dioxide and nearly 80 percent more nitrogen oxide than the company emitted in 2016, both dangerous pollutants.

Vistra has not been involved in this rulemaking and, according to Dynegy, will not be bound to any of Dynegy’s statements about how it would operate the plants were the rule to be implemented. The environmental groups argue that the rulemaking should be put on hold until the merger is finished and the plans of the new company are better understood. Moreover, the resulting company will have over four billion dollars in equity and face an entirely different financial situation, undercutting Dynegy’s main argument for the rule change.

“This proposal would let Dynegy’s dirtiest coal plants pollute more, and is just one of the ways the company is trying to bail out its aging, uneconomic power plants. The health of Illinois shouldn’t suffer to make up for Dynegy’s poor business decisions.”

• Christie Hicks, Manager, Clean Energy Regulatory Implementation

“The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has been talking to the wrong company. It’s time to put an end to this poorly conceived, backroom proposal to boost profits at the expense of public health.”

• Lindsay Dubin, Staff Attorney, ELPC

“This motion will ensure that Illinois doesn’t rush to change important pollution standards that protect the health and environment of Illinoisans only to help a company that will no longer be in existence by the middle of this year.”

• Toba Pearlman, staff attorney at the NRDC

“Sierra Club members in Illinois have been working to hold Dynegy accountable for years. Our members, volunteers and allies are tired of seeing Dynegy crying broke and asking for handouts at the expense of Illinois families. In the Peoria area, where there are multiple Dynegy plants, we’ve seen the impacts first hand. The last thing Governor Rauner and the State of Illinois should be doing is bailing out aging, polluting coal plants so that a Texas energy corporation can boost its profits.”

• Joyce Blumenshine, Sierra Club Heart of Illinois Group Chair

“Governor Rauner must tell Dynegy to stand down and let the new owners at Texas-based Vistra Energy lay out their plans for these dangerous coal plants. If Vistra is taking over these coal plants this spring and also wants to sicken and kill Illinois residents by doubling the deadly pollution those coal plants emit, let’s hear it directly from them.”

• Brian Urbaszewski, Director Environmental Health Programs, RHA