Tuesday, September 1, 2009 9:46 PM CDT
FutureGen Alliance, DOE sign cooperative pact
Next step is early 2010 decision on moving forward
By ROB STROUD, Staff Writer
rstroud@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — FutureGen Alliance and U.S. Department of Energy officials signed an agreement Tuesday that covers preliminary design work through the end of 2009 for the alliance’s proposed near-zero emissions power plant in Mattoon.
During Tuesday’s meeting in Mattoon, officials with the alliance also said they are recruiting additional members to increase the group’s ranks from nine to 20 and are pursuing additional funding sources for the power plant.
The cost of the project has been estimated as high as $2.3 billion.
Officials said the alliance and the DOE will make a decision in early 2010 on whether or not they will move forward with funding construction of the proposed coal-fueled power plant, which would store carbon dioxide underground.
“I am very confident. That is my job and I am committed to making it happen,” said alliance CEO Michael Mudd of the long-term prospects for the proposed power plant. Mudd added the alliance and its partners in state and local government are also working hard on the project.
The $17.3 million “limited scope cooperative agreement” that was signed by FutureGen officials and Kristina Johnson, undersecretary of the DOE, covers electric grid interconnect studies, work on securing environmental permits, and updating plant design and project cost estimates.
“By the end of the year, we expect to have the pieces put together,” Mudd said of the preliminary design. If construction of the power plant is OK’d in early 2010, Mudd said his goal would be to break ground sometime in 2010.
Tuesday’s announcement was made in the board room at the Mattoon school district office, which was filled by alliance representatives, local officials and reporters. The crowd also included former U.S. House majority leader and former Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt, who has been lobbying Congress on behalf of FutureGen.
The DOE announced in June that it is willing to commit $1.073 billion to the public-private partnership with the FutureGen Alliance. The alliance would need to cover the balance of the costs.
Mudd said updating the plant design could result in cost savings to the project, adding the project’s original $2.3 billion estimate was figured at a time when construction and material costs were at a higher level than they are now in the current economic downturn.
The alliance also will be recruiting with the goal of increasing its membership from nine to 20, Mudd said. Having more members and looking at other financing options could help close the financial gap for getting the power plant constructed, he said.
“We are very optimistic we are going to be able to get to that (membership) point or very close to that point,” Mudd said.
Paul Thompson, chairman of the FutureGen board, emphasized that the alliance does not need to lock in additional members by the time a decision is made in early 2010 on the project’s future; it just needs to get letters of intent from them.
Thompson said the presence of Undersecretary Johnson at Tuesday’s meeting is a sign of the DOE’s involvement and strong representation in the planning process during recent months.
“The FutureGen project has great potential to be a flagship project in using coal in a way that reduces carbon in the atmosphere,” Johnson said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Angela Griffin, president of Coles Together, took the presence of Johnson — the third-highest official at DOE — at Tuesday’s announcement as one of the best signs yet for the future of the plant.
“Someone from that level at DOE is willing to engage in this project,” said Griffin. “That’s somewhat novel in terms of where we had been with DOE.”
During President Bush’s administration, the DOE decided in January 2008 to cut federal support for FutureGen due to rising costs and to instead invest in multiple, smaller carbon capture sequestration test projects.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was among officials who worked to keep FutureGen as originally proposed alive and slated to be built in Mattoon.
In a letter to Thompson on Tuesday, Durbin commended the FutureGen Alliance for entering a cooperative agreement with DOE and for continuing to move forward with the project.
Durbin also committed to working with the alliance and the DOE on several issues, particularly their joint effort to increase the membership of the FutureGen Alliance.
“Today’s board meeting and the cooperative agreement marks the beginning of the important next phase of the FutureGen project at Mattoon, Illinois,” Durbin said in a press release. “I believe that we can address our nation’s energy needs in a cleaner more efficient way and that FutureGen is a critical research component of using coal without causing more harm to the environment.”
Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 238-6861.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
CLICK TO ENLARGE
|
|
|
cman wrote on Sep 1, 2009 7:04 PM:
What???? Still can't make a final decision???? I don't understand - I thought this was all a done deal now!!!
Yeah right. Every time they report on it, there is still a "decision" to be made about building it. "