Energy Department defends power-plant plan

Despite threats from Sen. Dick Durbin, Undersecretary of Energy C.H. "Bud" Albright Jr. maintains that his department will restructure FutureGen.

Albright announced Wednesday in a conference call that the Department of Energy created a draft of the requirements for power plants that will use federal money. Companies would be able to apply for the money by mid-summer, he said. The department could choose the plants by December, and they could be operating by 2015.

The announcement comes soon after Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, threatened to block appointments to the Department of Energy in an effort to build the $1.8 billion clean coal-burning plant in Mattoon.

The department wants to add carbon-dioxide-storing technology to power plants that already turn coal into gas instead of burning it.

The idea is to get the most bang for the government's buck, Albright said, and to store more carbon dioxide with several plants.

The guidelines, which are open for comments and suggestions for the next two weeks, require the plants to produce at least 300 megawatts of electricity and capture at least 81 percent of carbon dioxide, with a goal of capturing 90 percent.

The 81 percent minimum is based on what the department thinks is technologically possible, Albright said, though money will be awarded to the most competitive companies, such as those that can store more carbon dioxide.

The original plan for the plant in Mattoon would capture 90 percent of carbon dioxide, said FutureGen Alliance spokesman Lawrence Pacheco. And while the current design for the Mattoon plant would produce 275 megawatts of electricity, Pacheco said the same turbines could be used to produce 300 megawatts.

The Department of Energy also announced other guidelines for emissions, all of which Pacheco said the original FutureGen plant would meet.

The restructured plan would give money for multiple plants, Albright said, though he declined to say how many. The department plans to spend about $1.3 billion total – and could pay between $100 million and $600 million on each plant.

That $1.3 billion is about the same amount the Department of Energy would pay for the original FutureGen project – 74 percent of the $1.8 billion cost. The FutureGen Alliance, made up of 13 international power companies, would pay the rest.

The department announced in late January that it wished to fund several commercial plants, rather than the single experimental plant in Mattoon.

The FutureGen Alliance and Illinois delegation are fighting to bring the plant to Mattoon. The topic was to be addressed this morning in a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

Those in favor of the Mattoon plant argue that plenty of time and money have been invested in the original plan, making it the smarter choice.

The Department of Energy thinks differently, Albright said.

"We firmly believe that our restructured plan is the better way; it's the faster way to go," he said. "It goes directly to commercial as opposed to (the original plan for) an experimental facility, a research facility."

He said the department has nothing against central Illinois.

"Nobody is saying anything about Mattoon. Mattoon is a great place," Albright said, adding that one of the commercial plants could be built there. "What we're doing is taking a new direction in the design of our program."

It was Albright who said in February that the department wasn't interested in "building Disneyland in some swamp in Illinois."

He has since apologized.

But Coles Together President Angela Griffin, whose economic development group worked to bring FutureGen to Mattoon, said the city is still focused on landing the original project and not a commercial plant.

"If we don't have FutureGen at Mattoon at the scope and scale that it was originally planned, with international participation, the (Department of Energy) cannot say that it is honestly serious about proving the technology and making it globally available," Griffin said, adding that a plant built according to the restructured plan would become just another one that "may or may not get off the ground and has no global impact."

Another reason Mattoon isn't interested in participating in the restructured plan is because of upcoming political changes, she said.

"The individuals that hastily hatched Plan B probably will not serve under a new administration that takes over in January," she said. "It's unlikely a new administration would ever fund such an ill-conceived plan."

And Illinois politicians continue work to bring FutureGen to their home state.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich sent a letter Wednesday to Durbin, asking him to pass along the state's views in favor of Mattoon. Durbin was expected at today's hearing.

U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, said in a prepared statement that the Illinois delegation is committed to the original project.

"My colleagues and I on both sides of the aisle will not allow the (Department of Energy) to undercut the will of the people," Johnson said. "Years of study and planning have gone into this project. FutureGen Alliance officials have remained faithful every step of the way. I am sorry our own administration has not been as resolute."

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