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"We will not go down without a fight," Sen. Dick Durbin said in a statement Tuesday that accused Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman of "cruel deception." Durbin also accused Bodman of "creating false hope" in a project that he did not intend to fund or support.
The FutureGen Alliance, a coalition of power and coal companies, last month announced that the $1.8 billion, 275-megawatt prototype power plant would be built in Mattoon under a plan that called for the DOE to cover three-quarters of the cost. The site was chosen over Tuscola, Ill., and two sites in Texas.
But the DOE, frustrated by ballooning costs, wanted the announcement delayed until the project could be redesigned and costs reduced. The department also said it wasn't ready to issue its final notice that Mattoon was environmentally acceptable.
The DOE would not publicly divulge its intentions regarding the plant or discuss what was said during the private meeting with lawmakers, saying only that it planned an announcement within days.
Bodman declined to discuss the DOE's plans with The Associated Press.
"Secretary Bodman has maintained a strong commitment to the FutureGen project since we announced its public-private agreement in 2005," a statement issued by his office said. "But the cost of the plant has almost doubled and we've seen technological advances over the past five years, that require a thorough reassessment to ensure that the FutureGen project delivers the greatest possible technological benefits in the most cost-efficient manner."
Durbin and Rep. John Shimkus, a Republican from Collinsville, Ill., said they would take their case directly to President Bush, who proposed FutureGen in 2003.
Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for the alliance, said developers have heard from the Energy Department "about the need to restructure the program," but would not speculate about what might happen.
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 The alliance earlier this month offered to assume a greater share of the project's cost to allay government concerns, lowering the DOE obligation to the same level as when the project was announced in 2003
-- it then was $800 million and now is around $1.33 billion.
The alliance said it would cover the rest and assume any further cost increases, through a combination of bank financing and repayments from revenue generated by the plant.
The DOE, in its first response to the offer, objected Tuesday, saying in a statement that if the alliance defaulted on its debt, the department could be left to pay the bill or the plant could wind up in the hands of lenders.
FutureGen is meant to test the commercial and environmental viability of using coal to generate energy while capturing the carbon dioxide and storing it underground. The greenhouse gas is one of the drivers of climate change, scientists say.
Finalist sites all coveted the roughly 3,000 construction jobs the plant was expected to generate while being built, plus another 150 permanent jobs.
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On the Net:
U.S. Department of Energy
FutureGen Alliance: http://www.futuregenalliance.org/
[Associated
Press; By JIM SUHR]
Associated Press reporters David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., H. Josef Hebert in Washington and Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas, contributed to this story.
Copyright 2007 The Associated
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