Officials to Pick Site for Coal Plant

[December 18, 2007]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- A government and industry research project to learn ways to burn coal without emitting global warming gases is taking a major step forward Tuesday with an announcement on where the futuristic power plant will be built -- in Texas or Illinois.

The $1.8 billion program, called FutureGen, has been under increasing scrutiny in Congress. Some lawmakers have questioned its soaring cost -- nearly double the $950 million originally projected -- and its long delays.

The FutureGen Alliance, a consortium of 12 U.S. and foreign energy companies, planned to announced the selection of one of four communities -- Odessa and Jewett in Texas, Mattoon and Tuscola in Illinois -- for the facility, which was first proposed eight years ago. It is supposed to be virtually pollution-free and produce both electricity and hydrogen. Its carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, is to be captured and buried.

President Bush has touted the project as both a key to developing carbon-free coal-burning power plants and essential for the emergence later this century of a hydrogen-based energy economy. A year ago Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, during a trip to Asia, hailed China's decision to participate in a government steering committee. A Chinese utility is among the alliance members.

The long-awaited announcement of a site for the plant became embroiled in controversy in recent weeks.

Energy Department representatives were not taking part in the announcement and last week told the industry group it was "inadvisable" to go ahead with a site selection at this time. The department said it was still examining some of the public comments received in response to environmental reviews of the four sites.

"We advised them not to move forward," department spokeswoman Julie Ruggiero said Monday. She said the department had yet to issue a formal Record of Decision related to the environmental reviews that were formally issued Nov. 16, triggering a 30-day public comment period.

The FutureGen project, with hundreds of jobs and prestige at stake, has been the subject of intense lobbying by lawmakers from the two rival states.

Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, has taken his case to Bodman, arguing that the Illinois sites have the edge because of the close proximity of the state's large coal resources and its suitable geology for deep burial of carbon dioxide.

Texas' large GOP-tilted delegation has been pressing administration officials on the value of that state's two sites -- Odessa in western Texas and the Heart of Brazos near Jewett in the eastern part of the state.

"Texas is the ideal location," argues Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and one of the most consistent supporters of the White House on Capitol Hill.

Bodman has said the selection will be based on science, not politics. But, in fact, the private consortium makes the final selection and construction decisions, even though the federal government is paying three-fourths of the cost.

The alliance members -- including major U.S. coal-burning utilities American Electric Power and Southern Co., and the country's largest coal producer, Peabody Energy -- have committed $400 million over 10 years.

Congress is giving the program $75 million this year, $33 million less than the administration had wanted. Committees overseeing Energy Department spending expressed concern that FutureGen was siphoning money away from other clean-coal programs.

[Associated Press; By H. JOSEF HEBERT]

Associated Press writer Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report.

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