Illinois, Indiana join forces in a bid for coal plant of future
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Indiana Gov. Mitchell Daniels are teaming up to try to land a $1 billion project touted as the coal plant of the future.
The duo signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday, in which they agreed to "pool their collective expertise in a joint effort to secure the FutureGen project."
FutureGen is a U.S. Department of Energy initiative to design, build and operate a prototype coal-fueled power plant with near-zero emissions. According to the memorandum of understanding, Indiana will back Illinois' application to host the actual FutureGen plant, while Illinois will push to get associated "carbon dioxide sequestration" testing projects located in Indiana.
The location of the plant will be decided by an industrial consortium called the FutureGen Energy Alliance, which signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy last week to help fund the project.
"There's going to be a lot of states going after this, but we're the only state so far that's actually partnered up with another state," said Bill Hoback, bureau chief of the Illinois Office of Coal Development.
Illinois is "unequaled" in the kinds of investment tools it can offer a project like FutureGen, and partnering with Indiana should give Illinois an even stronger advantage in the competition for the project, he said.
"This agreement shows vision in creating a regional, bipartisan alliance that pools our two states' assets to realize our common goal of developing our abundant coal reserves in an environmentally responsible manner," Blagojevich said in a written release. "We share a coal basin that spans the Wabash and Ohio rivers, and we share a commitment to unlocking the full energy potential of Illinois Basin coal through coal gasification technology. The only way to make coal king again is to make coal clean, which is what we are both committed to doing."
A written statement from Daniels said the coal basin shared by the two states is ideal for FutureGen.
"We have all the elements that are needed for this project: the natural resources, ideal geologic structure and a commitment to clean coal as America's ace in the energy hole," Daniels' statement said.
However, states like Ohio, Texas and Wyoming also claim to be the ideal location for FutureGen, and the competition is expected to be fierce.
The site selection process is expected to begin early next year, but a final decision may not be made until mid-to-late 2007, according to an Energy Department news release.
