Gov. Blagojevich Urges President Bush to Get Behind FutureGen Project, Visit Mattoon

Sends Letter Urging Administration's Continued Support for Landmark Clean-Coal Project

[December 22, 2007]  SPRINGFIELD -- Continuing his efforts to move the landmark FutureGen coal gasification project forward, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich sent a letter to President Bush on Friday encouraging his support for the first-of-its-kind clean-coal project and inviting him to visit Mattoon. On Tuesday, the FutureGen Alliance selected the east-central Illinois community as the site to build the $1.4 billion plant. Soon after the FutureGen announcement, however, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman raised concerns about the project, suggesting that it might be delayed.

In his letter to the president, Blagojevich wrote: "I was heartened to hear your comments from your December 20th press conference when you said 'We do have 250 years of coal. And I believe we can develop technologies that will enable us to use that coal in an environmentally friendly way.' Clearly you recognize the importance of clean coal energy innovation. That's why I'd like to invite you to visit Mattoon, Illinois -- the just-announced future home of the landmark public-private FutureGen project -- to see first-hand the national and international benefits of the project."

On Wednesday, Blagojevich sent a letter to Bodman requesting a meeting to discuss how to move the project forward so east-central Illinois communities can benefit from the economic boost, and the nation and the world can benefit from the landmark clean-coal innovations.

FutureGen, a coal gasification facility, will convert coal into hydrogen and electricity, while capturing and safely storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide deep underground. It will lay the groundwork for developing similar plants around the country and the world, pioneering the capture and storage of greenhouse gases.

After a rigorous site review process, Mattoon was selected Tuesday over three competing locations by the FutureGen Alliance, which is developing the facility for the U.S. Department of Energy. The Mattoon FutureGen facility will be built on 444 acres of land located one mile northwest of the city.

Mattoon's selection was the result of close cooperation among government and economic development leaders in east-central Illinois who worked hand in hand with experts from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity's Office of Coal Development, the Illinois State Geological Survey-University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, and the Illinois Clean Coal Institute. Together they presented a compelling case to the U.S. Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance that central Illinois has the best geology, infrastructure, research facilities and community support to ensure FutureGen's success.

Blagojevich also built a coalition of states supporting Illinois' bid for FutureGen. The states of Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming all endorsed locating FutureGen in Mattoon or Tuscola. The Illinois congressional delegation and the Illinois state legislature also played crucial roles in securing FutureGen by working diligently in a bipartisan fashion to ensure FutureGen remained a national and state priority.

In addition to placing Illinois at the center of clean-coal energy innovation and furthering the revitalization of the Illinois coal industry, FutureGen will have a significant economic impact on the region and state. According to a recent study by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the project will have a much larger impact than the 1,300 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs the Department of Energy estimates will be created. The study showed that during the four-year construction period, there would be more than $1 billion in economic impact statewide and 1,225 indirect and induced spin-off jobs created as a result of the economic ripple effect generated by FutureGen. Once the facility is operational, the study noted that FutureGen would generate $135 million annually in total statewide economic output, with an $85 million annual increase in Coles County alone. FutureGen will also create an additional 360 indirect and induced full-time jobs statewide, according to the report.

The $1.4 billion FutureGen project, a government-private partnership, will build a near-zero-emission, integrated gasification, combined-cycle power plant that will capture and store 90 percent of the plant's carbon dioxide emissions. By sequestering the carbon dioxide in deep geological reservoirs more than one mile underground in the Mount Simon Sandstone reservoir, emissions of this greenhouse gas to the atmosphere are eliminated, avoiding the global climate change impacts of the carbon dioxide. FutureGen will be a first-of-its-kind facility to fully integrate carbon sequestration while also eliminating many of the other emissions associated with coal use in conventional coal-fueled power plants. It will be a world-class research facility that will greatly expand our understanding of clean-coal technology and of carbon sequestration to avoid global climate change. The deep Mount Simon has performed well as a natural gas storage reservoir in Illinois, and scientists expect the same performance for carbon dioxide storage at Mattoon.

Construction of the project is expected to begin in 2010, with full-scale operations beginning in 2013. For more information on FutureGen, please visit www.futuregenforillinois.com.

[Text from file received from the Illinois Office of Communication and Information]