Department of Energy Kills FutureGen; Insults Illinois

Clean Coal Power Plant Funding Stripped

There is an ugly battle brewing between Illinois lawmakers and the U.S. Department of Energy over the emissions-free power plant known as FutureGen.

After a multi-year search and debate spanning several states, the DOE announced last summer that it had chosen Mattoon, Illinois, as the home of the new coal-fired electric plant, FutureGen, which is supposed to employ such state of the art technology that it will be virtually emissions free.

FutureGen is also supposed to be capable of dealing with coal with high sulfur content, which is good news for coal mines in most of the eastern United States. Emissions standards of the Clean Air Act made it hard for most places to burn eastern coal, causing a switch to cleaner-burning coal from the western United States or a move away from coal altogether.

But the joy at the awarding of the plant, estimated to cost $1.8 billion, turned to anger January 30 after Energy Department officials announced that they would be withdrawing federal support for the project.

Illinois officials vowed to keep fighting for the project and take their case to the White House where President Bush had been a key supporter of the project. They complained about the sudden change of heart from the DOE, but were generally upbeat about the future of the project.

This week, the animosity grew with reports that the DOE officials were no longer just nixing the project, but also bad-mouthing Illinois.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and U.S. Rep. Timothy Johnson (R-Illinois) sent a letter this week demanding an apology for quotes from the department which likened building FutureGen to building Disneyland in "some swamp in Illinois. According to a letter from the two published in the February 5 edition of the Southern Illinoisan newspaper, Under Secretary of Energy C.H. "Bud" Albright made the unfavorable comments.

Initial reports indicated that the sudden opposition to federal funding for FutureGen was related to skyrocketing costs. Costs for the project were to be largely underwritten by the federal government with private investors covering about one quarter of the $1.8 billion price tag.