Texas, Illinois on Short List for US$1 Billion Coal Plant
Date: 26-Jul-06
Country: US
The proposed 275-megawatt plant, which would burn coal to produce electricity as well as hydrogen, is being developed by a consortium of the US Department of Energy and big utilities and mining companies. These include American Electric Power , Southern Co. and Peabody Energy.
"FutureGen puts the United States and its partners in a position of leadership in coming to terms with two of the world's major concerns: energy security and the projected rise in greenhouse gases," said Jeffrey Jarrett, DOE Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy.
"It is meant to deliver affordable energy for economic growth while beginning the steady elimination of carbon dioxide emissions."
FutureGen officials narrowed the site selection to four potential locations: Mattoon and Tuscola counties in Illinois and Odessa and Jewett, Texas.
The governors of Illinois and Texas both praised the decision, with each making a renewed new pitch for plant organizers to consider their state when a final decision is made in September 2007.
"For coal to be king again it has to be clean, which is why we are also offering the financial tools necessary to get this enormous public-private project off the ground here in Illinois," said Democrat Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
"We will continue to work with the Texas congressional delegation to bring FutureGen to Texas," said Lone Star State Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican.
The FutureGen project would separate heat-trapping greenhouse gases from the plant's exhaust and inject them into underground reservoirs to prevent them from entering the atmosphere.
Some environmentalists said that instead of looking to build expensive demonstration projects the federal government should also put in place rules that require companies to reduce polluting carbon dioxide emissions.
"We are not being critical, we need this technology. But we need to move faster and don't need to take so long to demonstrate it. The private sector is getting to the future faster than FutureGen," said David Doniger, policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate center.
With the federal government slated to fund up to US$700 million of the total cost of the project, states have been eager to participate, seeing the plant as a veritable job generator.
In addition to Illinois and Texas, states vying to host the plant were Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Colorado, and West Virginia. Construction could begin in 2009, with operations beginning in 2012, developers said.
