Energy Department Math Error Could Give FutureGen New Life

Sen. Dick Durbin says an apparent $500 million math error by the Energy Department proves that its shelving of an experimental coal-fired power plant planned for Illinois was flawed.

Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker says congressional auditors have found that the department made the goof when it withdrew its support last year from the project known as FutureGen.

The error led the department to mistakenly say FutureGen had nearly doubled in cost.

FutureGen's developers, including a consortium of big energy and utility companies, had picked Mattoon in east-central Illinois as FutureGen's would-be site.

Shoemaker says revelation of the math error proves Durbin's suspicions that the Energy Department's logic and math both were wrong.

FutureGen would burn coal for power but store emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide underground.