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.
St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. says in its annual report that the Securities and Exchange Commission served the 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 in Illinois' Washington County, southeast of St. Louis, 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.
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