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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Tuesday, March 4, 2008 9:06 PM CST
DOE to take new bids for restructured FutureGen

By HERB MEEKER, Staff Writer
hmeeker@jg-tc.com

MATTOON — Local officials support state government comments to oppose restructuring the FutureGen project, said Coles Together President Angela Griffin.

The U.S. Department of Energy closed the comment period at midnight Monday on its plans to restructure FutureGen into separate facilities instead of the original program to build a single coal-fueled power plant with near-zero emissions technology at a site west of Mattoon.

Now, a DOE spokeswoman said the federal agency will solicit bids this spring from interested businesses and entities that wish to participate in its new plan for the clean coal project, according to an Associated Press report.

“We did not comment independently from the state of Illinois. We stand behind and support the governor’s comments to bring FutureGen to Illinois,” Griffin said.

Mattoon was selected by FutureGen Alliance, a consortium of a dozen coal-related companies, for the power plant that would combine state-of-the-art technology to reduce pollution from the plant site and long-term underground storage of carbon dioxide produced by the electrical plant.

Then in January, DOE announced it would not fund the original design for FutureGen, citing rising costs, among other concerns.

That was a devastating blow for Mattoon and Illinois after nearly two years of working to win the effort to bring the energy plant to Coles County. The project had the prospect of producing more than 3,000 jobs in Illinois with most in East Central counties of the state.

With so much at stake, Coles Together, Mattoon, Charleston and other entities are staying the course for changing the decision on the future of the original design for FutureGen, Griffin said. State and federal lawmakers and officials are working to seek funding or a change of policy on FutureGen from the current administration in Washington.

“What DOE is doing now does not change our strategy. We are 100 percent behind FutureGen Alliance and the Illinois congressional delegation in their support for the original plan,” Griffin said.

“We’re staying on the course when DOE announced the FutureGen program (in 2003),” she added. “DOE, on the other hand, is going off its own course.”

Contact Herb Meeker at hmeeker@jg-tc.com or 238-6869.

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