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The proposed FutureGen facility was planned to be built in Mattoon. It is expected to cost $1.8 billion and create 150 jobs. Last week, reports surfaced of the possibility of the Department of Energy building more than one site. (Photo courtesy of Coles Together)

FutureGen awaits final decision

By: Marco Santana/Staff Reporter

Posted: 1/16/08

Angela Griffin said Tuesday the Bush administration's ties to Texas have caused the Department of Energy to re-evaluate FutureGen Alliance's decision to build its facility in Mattoon.

Last week, a report surfaced that said the department was looking into restructuring the project to have several smaller research sites throughout the country rather than just one site in Mattoon.

Griffin, the president of Coles County's economic development organization, Coles Together, said the DOE had been prepared to move forward with FutureGen, until the alliance chose a non-Texas site during its meeting Dec. 5. FutureGen announced Mattoon as the site Dec. 18.

She questioned the timing of the department's hesitation, which she said began after the decision.

"Everything was a go and moving forward," Griffin said. "Everything was designed to have a site selected until they learned it's in Mattoon. It's 100 percent politics and nothing but."

Before the announcement, Mattoon had been a finalist for the site along with Tuscola and two Texas cities, Odessa and Jewett.

The reports of a possible restructuring upset Griffin.

"It's disappointing a project this important is apparently being hijacked by politics," she said.

FutureGen will be the world's first zero-emission fossil fuel plant. The plant will convert coal to hydrogen cleanly with carbon dioxide emissions being stored underground. If it goes as scheduled, construction will begin in 2009 and operations will begin in 2012.

DOE spokesperson Julie Ruggiero said the delay in a Record of Decision, a final step necessary for federal funds to be appropriated to the Mattoon site, has been because of increased costs and the department's desire to finalize a cost structure to cover the project.

In 2003, the DOE agreed to pay 74 percent of all costs. At the time, projected costs for the facility were $950 million. The last projection put the cost at $1.8 billion.

That means, under the agreement, the department would incur a cost of $1.332 billion, an increase from the $703 million the department initially committed.

"The department continues to assess our options to restructure this project in ways that carry out the program's important objectives," Ruggiero said. "The department has made steady investments, to the tune of $2.5 billion, in clean-coal technology and we remain committed to furthering the President's vision for a cleaner, more secure energy future."

Ruggiero said a large part of the department's delay in its Record of Decision is based upon a desire to "maximize the role of the private sector," in terms of funding for the project.

She said the department will release final cost-structure details and its decision in the next few weeks.

A leaked letter, reportedly from FutureGen CEO Michael Mudd, offering to raise FutureGen's commitment to $1 billion, was not correct, said FutureGen spokesperson Lawrence Pacheco.

"The alliance hasn't released its letter and is not going to," he said.

An alternative plan the alliance is suggesting would have FutureGen reimburse any DOE expenditures exceeding the current $1.8 billion price tag. Under the offer, the groups would split costs with FutureGen paying back the department after the site becomes operational.

Pacheco said the alliance was surprised when the DOE urged them not to make the announcement. He said they made the announcement to let the finalists know as soon as possible.

"All along, FutureGen's been on a very aggressive timeline," he said. "The alliance had a commitment with local communities vying for the facility to make the decision before the end of the year."

Despite the delay in the department's decision, Mattoon Public Works Director David Wortman said they will plan as if FutureGen will be exclusively in Mattoon until told otherwise.

"Whatever happens at the upper echelon is beyond my scope," he said. "I learned a long time ago not to worry about things I cannot control. (But) we are putting all of our energy to get the full FutureGen here."

Although Wortman said Mattoon would take a smaller location if the department went that way, State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said the DOE should stick with its original plan.

"I will do whatever I can to help to move forward," he said. "But it was held out as a single-location project and needs to stay a single-location project."

Marco Santana can be reached at 581-7945 or at masantana@eiu.edu.