Lawmakers: Funds for FutureGen may be pulled

ST. LOUIS -- The U.S. Department of Energy, frustrated by ballooning costs of an ambitious quest to build a virtually emissions-free power plant, told federal lawmakers Tuesday it plans to pull its support for a $1.8 billion project in Illinois, lawmakers said.

The Energy Department would not publicly divulge its intentions about the plant, dubbed FutureGen, or discuss what was said during the private meeting with lawmakers, saying only that it planned an announcement within days.

But some lawmakers who attended the briefing later insisted that any departure from building the coal-fired, 275-megawatt prototype power plant anywhere other than the central Illinois town of Mattoon would be unacceptable -- and grounds for a possibly nasty congressional fight.

Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, accused Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman of "cruel deception" of Illinoisans by "creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he has no intention of funding or supporting."

Durbin said Illinois' delegation in Congress "is going to make the case for FutureGen directly to the President."

"We will not go down without a fight," he said.

The FutureGen Alliance, a coalition of power and coal companies, last month announced that the plant would be built in Mattoon, under a plan that called for the DOE to cover three-quarters of the cost. The site was chosen over Tuscola, Ill., and two sites in Texas.

But the DOE had wanted the announcement delayed until the project could be redesigned and the costs reduced. The department also said it wasn't ready to issue its final notice that Mattoon was environmentally acceptable.

Bodman declined to discuss the Energy Department's plans Tuesday, and a statement issued by his agency did not divulge what the department has in mind for FutureGen.

While saying it "remains committed to FutureGen's objectives to advance the availability and use of clean-coal technology to meet growing demand and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," the department said it "believes that the public interest mandates that FutureGen deliver the greatest possible technological benefits in the most cost-efficient manner."

Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for the alliance, said developers have heard from the Energy Department "about the need to restructure the program," but would not speculate about what might happen.

FutureGen is meant to test the commercial and environmental viability of using coal to generate energy while capturing the carbon dioxide and storing it underground. Scientists say the greenhouse gas is one of the drivers of climate change.

Finalist sites all coveted the roughly 3,000 construction jobs the plant was expected to generate while being built, plus another 150 permanent jobs.