House Subcommittee Examines Futuregen Decision

Press Release

The House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, part of the Science Committee, today held a hearing to examine the decision by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to refocus the FutureGen project, discarding five years of work and abandoning Mattoon, Illinois, the site selected for the project. U.S. Congressman Jerry F. Costello (D-IL), a strong proponent of the program, asked pointed questions to Under Secretary of Energy Clarence H. "Bud" Albright, Jr. about the timing of the decision and the factors that went into it.

As proposed by President Bush in 2003, FutureGen was to be a public/private partnership to build a 275-megawatt prototype power plant with emissions equal to those of natural gas. Last December, after a lengthy selection process, the FutureGen Alliance of Energy Companies named Mattoon, Illinois, as the final site for the project. Two of the four finalist sites were located in Texas.

"It is clear from today's hearing that the decision to abandon the original FutureGen project cannot be defended," said Costello, a senior member of the Science Committee. "The main reason given by DOE was concern over costs, but Under Secretary Albright said today what Secretary Bodman has said before, that the costs were due to inflation only, not mismanagement. Any project would have encountered those increases, and such increases were expected. DOE has set back our efforts to develop advanced clean coal technologies by at least 3-5 years by this action, and further increased the cost."

Other witnesses at the hearing described how the FutureGen project was uniquely positioned to develop carbon capture and sequestration and other technologies. Costello will continue to work to keep the original FutureGen concept operational until it can be revisited next year.

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