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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

New Report: Many Hoosiers on the Hook for Higher Electricity Costs

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Thursday, August 30, 2012   

INDIANAPOLIS - The Prairie State coal-fired power plant in southern Illinois was pitched to communities as a long-term, low-cost electricity resource in 2007. A new report questions those claims.

Tom Sanzillo co-authored the report, "The Prairie State Coal Plant: The Reality vs. The Promise," for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

"Our study estimates that actual electricity costs for many municipalities will exceed $80 a megawatt hour in the first year, and therefore be over 100 percent of the cost promised by Peabody and Prairie State."

The Indiana Municipal Power Agency, which has more than 50 member utilities in Indiana, purchased a 12 percent stake of the plant or approximately 200 megawatt hours. Earlier this year, plant construction delays had consumers paying off bonds for the project before they received any power. The first of two generating units has been operating since June.

Kerwin Olson, executive director of Citizen Action Coalition in Indiana, says Prairie State is a bad investment for Hoosier utility customers.

"The ratepayers of the 52 municipal utilities throughout Indiana are on the hook for that $741 million and will see their electric bills increase more than they otherwise would, absent this unnecessary and overly expensive project."

Roberta Wade, a councilwoman from Galion, Ohio, says her community paid $61 a megawatt hour in June and $60 in July for Prairie State electricity - more than what Galion would pay on the open market today.

"When we were sold these projects, we obviously weren't aware of the tremendous amount of risk involved here."

A call to Prairie State for comment on the report was not returned.

The report is online at ieefa.org.


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