Welcome to PowerIllinois.org

PowerIllinois.org is sponsored by the Illinois Energy Association, whose members include investor-owned electric utilities and independent energy producers that supply electricity to millions of homes and businesses throughout our state.

The air in Illinois is getting cleaner, and our state’s power generators can point to an admirable record for reducing emissions. This is further evidence that regulations under the federal Clean Air Act are effective in mitigating the environmental impact of power generation and other industrial activities.

Illinois power generators have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past few years to comply with tough new federal environmental standards and will spend hundreds of millions more to meet pending federal regulations through 2018.

We hope you will find this site to be a useful resource in learning more about air quality issues related to the generation of electric power from Illinois’ coal-fired power plants. In particular, this site focuses on regulation of mercury emissions from power plants.

While we are fully prepared to implement the federal rule regulating mercury emissions, Illinois’ energy companies will be active and constructive participants in the upcoming rulemaking process in Illinois regarding mercury emissions from our state’s power plants.

Illinois energy producers recognize that mercury is a serious issue. We support the USEPA’s regulation of mercury emissions from power plants, which will reduce emissions in Illinois by 80 percent. And we are committed to doing our fair share to meet this challenge. But as we consider Governor Blagojevich’s proposal to accelerate mercury controls already put in place by the federal government, important questions need to be addressed.

We hope the information on PowerIllinois.org will serve as a resource to policymakers as the state works its way through this regulatory process in 2006.

Thank you.