Timetable for assessing plant sites set
A rapid timetable has been set for completing environmental assessments of possible sites for the $1 billion FutureGen power plant.
Jack Lavin, head of the state's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, said in a phone interview Tuesday that FutureGen officials expect site assessment work for the Mattoon and Tuscola sites to be submitted by Nov. 17.
Lavin and other representatives from Illinois and from competing sites in Jewett and Odessa, Texas, spent Tuesday in Pittsburgh learning more about what they'll have to do and how fast they'll have to do it.
"The focus today has been completing the environmental impact assessment," Lavin said. "In the past, siting studies have taken 33 to 36 months, and they're trying to do it in 12 months." FutureGen is expected to announce the winning site for the zero-emissions coal-burning plant in September 2007.
Lavin said the 10 members of the Illinois delegation learned more Tuesday about the kind of data they'll need to assemble. He said most of the data is already in hand, but officials may have to collect more.
"We have a solid foundation," Lavin said, adding the state's been working to attract the plant for more than three years. "We're all working together, state agencies, the local site. It's an accelerated process, it's very technical and we exchanged a lot of questions and answers."
At Tuscola, the potential purchasers have options on farmland west of the city owned by the Tunks and Pflum families near the Equistar and Cabot chemical production plants. The site is adjacent to U.S. 36 near the intersection of county roads 750 East and 1050 North.
Lavin said he's confident that the Illinois team can meet the deadline.
"I don't think there's a choice," he said. "We have our marching orders, we know the time frame and we will moved forward."
FutureGen officials announced the four site finalists last week. They say plant construction may generate as many as 1,300 jobs with a combined pay of about $250 million. When finished, the plant is expected to bring 150 permanent jobs to the community selected. It's a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy and FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a nonprofit consortium of private companies that use or produce coal.
They aim to build the world's cleanest power plant with near-zero emissions producing enough electricity to power 150,000 U.S. homes. The plant will also produce a hydrogen gas that can be used in refineries or clean-burning hydrogen fuel cells.
A byproduct of the process, carbon dioxide, would be stored underground in geologic formations.
