Jan. 29, 2008: Energy Department Pulling Plug on FutureGen

With apprehension about cost, the Department of Energy is withdrawing from the FutureGen Alliance Next Generation Coal Plant.

Chicago Business
Energy Department Pulling Plug on FutureGen
By David Eggert
Jan. 29, 2008
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl? id=27954&seenIt=1

WASHINGTON (Crain ’s) — The Energy Department is pulling the plug on the FutureGen project, an experimental, $1.75-billion, super-clean coal-fired power plant slated for Downstate Mattoon.

The stunning decision, announced by Energy Secretary Sam Bodman in a rancorous meeting with Illinois lawmakers Tuesday morning, comes little more than a month after Illinois won a heated national competition to host the project and one day after President George W. Bush mentioned the technology in his State of the Union speech.

“After our meeting today, it is clear that Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman has misled the people of Illinois, creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he has no intention of funding or supporting,” Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said in a statement. “In 25 years on Capitol Hill, I have never witnessed such a cruel deception.”