Deadly St. Louis power plant to shut down Tuesday, Ameren says [Video]

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. — An Ameren power plant with a long history of federal Clean Air Act violations will shut down on Tuesday.

The Rush Island Energy Center, the nation’s sixth-largest emitter of sulfur dioxide (SO2), will cease operations amid the utility’s ongoing legal battle to properly remediate communities after more than a decade of illegally polluting air emissions.

Judge Rodney Sippel with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri ruled that Ameren violated the Clean Air Act when it made major modifications to the plant’s performance in 2007 and 2010, without a permit or installation of modern air pollution controls. The judge’s ruling was then upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Ameren, facing multiple legal battle defeats, previously decided to close, or “retire,” the Rush Island plant 15 years ahead …