The Edwardsport coal gasification plant can be seen for miles around the little community of Edwardsport Indiana at night. Photo © 2011 John Blair
October 6, 2011-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor.
Duke Energy has a long history in Edwardsport, IN. It is about to dismantle a small, very old conventional coal plant that has operated in one form or another since the turn of the 20th Century.
It is to be replaced by a very large, experimental Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle coal plant that will cost more than any power plant that ever came before it all paid for by Duke Energy’s ratepayers as a result a sweetheart deal struck by Duke and the Indiana Utility Regulator Commission in 2007.
That nefarious agreement, based on legislation passed by the state earlier that year forced Duke ratepayers to assume the entire risk for the plant which was originally supposed to capture and sequester carbon (CCS), a plan that has now vanished almost as if there was actually no intent to make it the promised “clean coal” plant it claimed to be.
Duke gained political support for the plant saying that it would be 630 megawatts with capture and sequestration and cost $1.4 billion. Indiana, with more than 94% of its electrical generation coming from dirty coal was eager to use what it called “home grown” energy from near by coal mines. 
Now the cost has risen to more than $3 billion and is no longer proposing carbon capture due to its huge cost which the US Department of Energy projects capital costs for CCS to add 50% to the total cost of a new plant’s construction. But the cost problem with CCS does not end there since the power needed to do CCS takes anywhere from 25 to 40% of the power generated by the facility.
Opponents of the plant brought all this out during the approval process but were ignored by the regulatory agencies involved in approving the plant.
Duke, of late has lost its support of the local community as well. Recently a meeting was held in the Edwardsport Fire Station where residents of the area expressed their dismay at Duke’s failing credibility and their dismissal of community concerns.
Opponents, including Valley Watch, Save the Valley, Sierra Club and Citizens Action Coalition, continue to fight the plant in every way they can since it is a bad deal for people’s health and their pocketbooks. The outcome is difficult to determine at this date.