Statement of Ms. Ryan Alexander, President, Taxpayers for Common Sense on the end of FutureGen.

“After wasting hundreds of millions of tax dollars, the Energy Department has made the long overdue decision to pull the plug on the beleaguered FutureGen project. For years, Taxpayers for Common Sense has decried the Administration’s attempts to resuscitate FutureGen in spite of the overwhelming evidence that it was doomed to failure. Taxpayers can finally breathe a sigh of relief that $1 billion more of their tax dollars will not be squandered in pursuit of the highly speculative commercial-scale carbon capture and sequestration project. Unfortunately, some lawmakers are already trying to resuscitate the project, the Administration should rebuff any attempt to do so. Ultimately, it was the lack of interest from the private sector that proved to be FutureGen’s undoing. If the day comes when market demand for emission-free coal makes the costly carbon capture technology worth the risk, then private industry can finance it without taxpayer subsidies.”