One of the nation's biggest coal producers says federal security regulators are investigating the company's role in development of a southwestern Illinois power plant.
Peabody Energy says in its annual report that the Securities and Exchange Commission served the St. Louis-based company with a subpoena last month requesting information and documents related to the Prairie State project. Without detailing the nature of the inquiry, Peabody says it is cooperating.
An SEC spokeswoman on Tuesday said it's the commission's policy not to publicly discuss such matters. The Prairie State Energy Campus is located in Washington County in southern Illinois. It includes a 1,600-megawatt electricity generating plant and an adjacent coal mine. Peabody owns roughly 5 percent of the campus, which the company developed with a consortium of other public power cooperatives.
