News Local/State

Department Of Energy Suspends FutureGen

By The Associated Press
 
A sign in a window in Mattoon on August 6, 2010, welcomed the FutureGen plant there. The federal government later cancelled the plant.

A sign is seen in a window in Mattoon, on Friday, Aug. 6, 2010, welcoming the FutureGen clean coal project to town. The town succeeded but learned that the federal government no longer wants to build the plant there. (AP Photo/David Mercer)

The Department of Energy says it has suspended the long-planned FutureGen clean-coal project in western Illinois.
 
DOE spokesman Bill Gibbons told The Associated Press on Tuesday the department concluded the project couldn't meet a September deadline to use its $1 billion in federal stimulus funding.
 
Lawrence Pacheco is a spokesman for the FutureGen Alliance, the group of coal companies working with the government on the project. He said the alliance has no choice but to shut down.

Without the federal funding there isn't enough money to finish the $1.65 billion project.
 
The plan was to refit a coal-fired power plant near Meredosia in western Illinois and store carbon dioxide from the coal underground.
 
An earlier version of the project, planned for Mattoon, was dropped by the administration of President George W. Bush due to costs.