CWLP just lately authorized a brand new contract to buy coal from a mine in Hillsboro, which it says will result in value financial savings for its prospects. House owners of the Viper Mine in Elkhart declare they don’t have any alternative however to shut for the reason that metropolis modified suppliers.
Operations on the Viper Mine in Elkhart are shutting down after the town of Springfield selected a less expensive coal provider for its electrical energy plant.
The mine, which at its peak employed about 300 miners, now’s all the way down to a skeleton crew answerable for dismantling tools, Jim Smith, president of Knight Hawk Coal, informed Illinois Occasions.
Knight Hawk Coal operates the mine, which is owned by Arch Assets. The corporate acquired the Worldwide Coal Group in 2011 for $3.4 billion, which included the central Illinois mine.
“The details are fairly simple. CWLP – the town of Springfield – has been the most important buyer for that mine because it was inbuilt 1982,” Smith stated. “They have been actually the one remaining buyer. Different smaller prospects had switched to fuel or closed store. They selected to not renew a contract, so we had no buyer – we had no different various.”
Smith stated as soon as the town determined to not renew Viper’s contract, a call was made to shut the mine.
“We stopped producing in July, (however) we continued to ship coal to the town. They agreed to purchase what we had on the bottom. And so they’ve moved on,” he stated.
However Doug Brown, chief utility engineer for Metropolis Water, Mild & Energy, informed IT that Knight Hawk wished to extend the value of its coal effectively above what the town had been paying.
“They principally got here to us and stated that they will have to boost the value of coal to $65 a ton… we knew that was effectively above market (price),” Brown stated. He stated he informed Knight Hawk the town must difficulty a request for proposals in mild of the value enhance.
“We won’t simply take that to the town council and try this to our prospects. We have now to be totally clear and advocate for the lowest-cost gas we are able to in hopes that possibly some aggressive bidding would possibly carry their worth down,” Brown stated.
As a substitute, Knight Hawk did not trouble to submit a bid.
Town did obtain bids from mines operated by Foresight Vitality, the proprietor of the Deer Run Mine in Hillsboro, and one other from a mine proprietor in southern Illinois, Brown stated. The Hillsboro mine obtained the contract.
Brown stated through the subsequent 4 years, the everyday CWLP residential buyer will doubtless see their month-to-month electrical invoice drop lower than 15 cents, versus elevating charges to cowl the elevated prices that may have resulted from persevering with to buy coal from Viper Mine.
“It is cheaper with the brand new contract. And we’ll save about $30 million {dollars} over the course of the four-year contract,” Brown stated.
The Viper Mine in Elkhart is 20 miles from CWLP’s turbines, whereas the Deer Run Mine in Hillsboro is 54 miles. Even with the extra trucking, the fee might be barely lower than what the utility has paid prior to now, Brown stated.
However that is little solace to the Elkhart miners who’ve misplaced their jobs.
State Sen. Sally Turner, R-Lincoln, stated it’s one other financial hit for an space that has suffered greater than its share in recent times.
She famous that Lincoln Faculty and Lincoln Christian Faculty have each closed and the state is contemplating shutting down Logan Correctional Middle, Illinois’ essential girls’s jail, and rebuilding it nearer to Chicago.
“Individuals do not know the place they stand on their current jobs – resembling on the jail,” Turner stated. “We simply nonetheless do not know what is going on to occur. So, they’re on pins and needles questioning: ‘Ought to we transfer, ought to we go take a job elsewhere?’ That is exhausting, particularly whenever you’re simply making an attempt to make ends meet. I do not know of any new companies or trade coming into Logan County.”
The closing of the mine will increase the ache in an already hurting neighborhood, she stated.
“I used to be in highschool when the coal mine began, and that was big. Lots of my associates went to work on the market. It has been a serious employer for us for a very long time. … That was a great wage for people in our space,” Turner stated.
On the time of its closure, Viper was probably the most northern mine working in Illinois. Nonetheless, the qualify of the coal restricted its marketability, Smith, the Knight Hawk Coal president, stated.
Smith stated coal from the Logan County mine generated fewer British thermal items per ton in comparison with that extracted elsewhere within the state.
“It is a poor-quality coal,” he stated. “So, it does not journey effectively. You could not ship it abroad or something. We have accomplished that previously when coal markets have been loopy, however there’s simply no remaining prospects.”
Whereas there are 50 million tons of coal but to be extracted from Viper Mine, Smith stated it’s unlikely it is going to ever reopen, even when demand for coal have been to return up.
“It might be extra economically possible to mine coal farther down the state,” he stated.
Like all the coal mines now working in Illinois, Viper’s workforce was not unionized.
Smith stated a call was made to close down the mine quietly.
“I do know that the mayor there on the town is aware of. Everybody is aware of. … So, it is no secret, however we simply didn’t come out and formally announce something. However simply to place it on the document: Town didn’t renew the contract, so we had no alternate options.”
