Durbin Meets with FutureGen Alliance and Illinois Officials to Discuss Proposed FutureGen Sites

Press Release

Durbin Meets with FutureGen Alliance and Illinois Officials to Discuss Proposed FutureGen Sites

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin today met with the CEO of the FutureGen Alliance, Mike Mudd, and the Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Jack Lavin, to discuss the proposed plans for locating the FutureGen project in downstate Illinois. Four sites are still under consideration for the project: Mattoon, Illinois; Tuscola, Illinois; Jewett, Texas; and Odessa, Texas.

"I am encouraged by the progress that has been made toward securing the FutureGen project for downstate Illinois - an area that has the coal and the commitment needed to make this project a success," said Durbin. "Both Illinois sites have received support from other states - Pennsylvania, Indiana and Kentucky - that recognize the advantages that our state has in both geology and existing infrastructure. I have been working closely with Senator Obama and Representative Costello to bring this project to Illinois and with a final announcement expected in the coming months, I will continue to do everything in my power to secure the FutureGen project for Illinois."

FutureGen will be a $1.5 billion government-industry project which will produce the first emissions-free coal generation plant of its kind. It is a demonstration for gasifying coal (converting it to hydrogen and carbon monoxide), producing hydrogen and electricity, capturing carbon dioxide, and sequestering it underground. The plant would generate approximately 275 MW of electricity, which is enough to supply 150,000 homes. Facility construction would begin in 2010, with full-scale operation beginning in 2013. The project is a joint venture between DOE and the FutureGen Alliance, a non-profit consortium of coal producers and energy generators.

Illinois has 38 billion tons of recoverable bituminous coal reserves, the largest in the nation (one-eighth of the total U.S. coal reserves, containing more energy than the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined). The valuable mineral underlies 65 percent of the state's surface. Coal transportation costs in Texas would be millions of dollars more expensive per year. The Illinois sites have an abundant and reliable supply of water and are geologically suited for the carbon-trapping technology that the FutureGen project would need to develop. Illinois is home to oil and gas reserves and deep saline aquifers that can capture and sequester carbon dioxide.

In addition, Southern Illinois University operates its Coal Research Center in Carbondale- one of the top such centers in the country - which conducts a wide range of studies that deal with the commercial development of coal. The center's work includes improvements of coal cleaning processes, the reduction of air pollution from coal-fired power plants, the reduction of solid waste residues from coal burning, and the development of products from those residues.

In early December of 2005, Secretary Bodman announced that the Department of Energy would be moving forward with the project, after signing an agreement with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a group of coal and energy companies with investment commitments to the project. The FutureGen Initiative was initially announced by President Bush in February 2003. Over the last year, site selection, design activities, and environmental analyses has laid the groundwork for final project design, construction, and operation. "Best and final offers" from the four sites were submitted on August 1, 2007 and the FutureGen Alliance Board is expected to make a final site selection before the end of 2007.

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