The Department of Energy (DOE) finally followed through on repeated attempts to abandon FutureGen due to dramatically escalating costs. The replacement is a plan to have taxpayers subsidize the retrofitting of old coal plants with expensive, unproven carbon capture technology. While other states embrace a new energy future, this plan keeps Illinois dependent on old coal.
What's being labeled "FutureGen 2.0" is similar to what DOE proposed in 2008 when it first abandoned FutureGen. The new focus is on smaller carbon capture projects at multiple sites that "will lead to a decade long project of repowering and retrofitting the 52 coal-fired power plants in Illinois..." The first will be an Ameren plant in Meredosia (northwest of Jacksonville).
As I wrote last week, the Government Accountability Office recently issued a report showing that the type of projects being funded by the new plan would raise power costs up to 80% and won't be commercially viable for 10-15 years. DOE was criticized for not consistently showing whether clean coal projects were reaching the intended goals.
Senator Dick Durbin puts the best spin possible on this rejection of a project that has already cost taxpayers millions. The good news is that some jobs will still come to central Illinois.
The bad news is that the jobs are associated with a dying, polluting industry that survives by being propped up with taxpayer subsidies. DOE's new plan is like someone in the 1920's researching the most advance horse and buggy technology to compete with the new-fangled automobile.
The FutureGen Alliance has taken the city of Mattoon on a roller coaster ride of false expectations after their phony announcement without support from DOE. I think Coles county is owed something more. Dick Durbin and Pat Quinn should work to bring a wind turbine or solar panel manufacturing plant to the area. Why not fund real clean energy research at nearby Eastern Illinois University or the University of Illinois? They deserve economic development based on America's energy future instead of more favors to coal industry executives.