Today, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the plan to build “FutureGen” a massive commercial “clean coal” facility in Mattoon, IL would dramatically change course. For more than a year, DOE has been grappling over the fate of the project that has been riddled in controversy since its announcement back in 2003. In fact, this isn’t the first time the project’s plan has gone bust– the Bush Administration pulled the plug on it in 2007 because of major cost overruns. This time around, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), a longtime advocate of FutureGen cited increasing cost expectations, struggles to find investors, and the understanding that the former FutureGen technology is already being developed as main reasons for the change. Rather than pursuing the construction of the new power generation facility in Mattoon, DOE has proposed retrofitting an existing plant in Meredosia, IL and transporting carbon dioxide waste to Mattoon for storage. The new plan calls for an idle Ameren plant, built in the 1940s, to be retrofitted and its carbon waste piped nearly 150 miles to Mattoon. Now named “FutureGen 2.0,” the plan calls for the use of oxy-carbon technology to restart Ameren's 200 megawatt Unit 4.

Last year’s stimulus earmarked $1 billion for a clean coal project that fit FutureGen’s bill. But it seems the original project’s hurdles were too big to overcome to secure the money. Unfortunately for taxpayers, rather than shifting that money back to the Treasury, DOE has come up with this new plan to fund expensive and elusive “clean coal” technology. The $1 billion will go to the FutureGen Alliance, Babcock & Wilcox and Ameren. While this project may end up carrying a smaller overall price tag, it still relies on expensive, unproven carbon capture and sequestration technology and should cause significant concerns for taxpayers.