Last month, the Department of Energy announced that it will likely
select the revised FutureGen clean coal projects by the end of the year — underscoring the federal government’s commitment to making clean coal
a part of our energy future.
According to the Department of Energy, the projects will concentrate on
the carbon capture and sequestration component of multiple commercial
power plants across the United States.
DOE is initially offering $290 million to fund the 50-50 cost share of
the carbon capture and sequestration components of the projects, to be
followed by $1.1 billion that would be available in subsequent years if
approved by Congress.
We still believe that the government should honor its initial commitment
to build a FutureGen demonstration plant in Mattoon, Ill. That is… the
Mattoon project should not have been scrapped to pursue other projects.
If we’re serious about meeting CO2 reduction goals, we should be doing
MORE, not LESS.
People in Illinois think so too – just this week, a state board pledged
$2 million to move FutureGen forward and the FutureGen
Alliance will match the grants and spend another $6 million toward the
effort.
Remember, for each month the project delayed, the cost goes up by about
$10 million because of inflation. So it’s in everyone’s interest to get
the political part of this squared away soon!