City Water, Light and Power made money generating electricity during the past year, but just barely, Springfield’s top municipal utility official told the Citizens Club last week.
What might happen in the future is tough to predict, panel members said.
Natural gas is a wild card, according to Karl McDermott, Ameren Distinguished Professor of Business and Government at University of Illinois Springfield. A controversial method of extracting gas from rock by injecting water and chemicals into the earth could prove a boon to gas-fired power plants that are now more expensive to operate than coal-fired plants.
“We will have a ton of it (gas), and the price will come down, if the technology is allowed to come to fruition,” McDermott said.
McDermott's comments were featured in an November 23, 2011, article in the Illinois Times.
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