The Sierra Club delivered a petition with more than a thousand signatures to the Springfield City Council to ask them to shut down two of CWLP’s power generating units.
At issue is whether two of the older coal-fired units should be shutdown at a cost of more than $11 million or should the city-owned utility spend $2 million to begin the retrofitting process — it would cover an initial contract for consultation, design and other work.
Acting CWLP Director Eric Hobbie says while it is hard to estimate what revenue will be in the future, he told council members closing the generators does not make economic sense.
“Closure would have an immediate cost. I don’t know how we would fund that,” says Hobbie. “We don’t sit on $11 million in cash. We don’t have that ability.”
The council voted to retrofit the generators and Hobbie says that will keep the utility in compliance with the EPA rules.