Mattoon, Tuscola FutureGen finalists

By Frank Radosevich II

Mattoon and Tuscola have made the short list for the future site of a $1 billion prototype power plant. With 22 potential sites listed back in April, the two Illinois communities have reached FutureGen’s “final four.”

The announcement was welcomed news in both cities, where construction of the plant could bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars to the local economy.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich, also happy with the news, said Illinois is the “logical choice” for the plant.

“We have the coal, the geology and the strong support on the federal, state and local level for bringing the world’s cleanest coal plant to Illinois,” Blagojevich said in a statement.

On May 12 finalists were under consideration but by Tuesday afternoon, the list had been whittled down to four.

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Although ranked fourth on the list, Tuscola’s Director of Economic Development Efforts, Brian Moody, was confident in the city’s chances.

“We think there’s probably still a lot of room in the criteria, once everything has been evaluated a little more closely, to gain some extra points,” Moody said. “We think the proximity of our utilities and our infrastructure is as good as anyone.”

The other two possible sites are in Jewett and Odessa, Texas, ranked first and third respectively.

A final decision from FutureGen on the location is expected sometime next year.

The proposed 275-megawatt power plant, a FutureGen Alliance and U.S. Department of Energy joint venture, will employ technology to produce both electricity and hydrogen from coal. In the plant, coal is converted into highly-enriched hydrogen gas that burns cleaner than coal, emitting less carbon dioxide – a “greenhouse” gas widely blamed for global warming. Any remaining carbon dioxide will be captured and separated from the hydrogen and permanently stored into various underground reservoirs.

The facility is expected to be up and running by 2012.

The FutureGen Alliance is a public-private partnership comprised of several coal and electric companies and the Department of Energy.

FutureGen is a “$1 billion public-private partnership to design, build and operate the world’s first coal-fueled, ‘zero emissions’ power plant,” according to the alliance’s Web site. The FutureGen Alliance aims to prove with its power plants the “technical and economic feasibility of producing low-cost electricity and hydrogen from coal while nearly eliminating emissions.” The facility is expected to produce electricity for about 150,000 U.S. households.

Another Illinois city was also up for consideration only to be dropped in the end. Effingham, Ill. had the fourth-highest score after a FutureGen evaluation report but various problems were cited for its removal. The property’s configuration in Effingham was considered too small, long and narrow and building a railroad loop for coal delivery to the site might be problematic, according to the final assessment. Additionally, two nearby housing developments within one mile of the proposed site further complicated the location. In all, the report concluded these potential problems weakened “the standing of this site following the initial scoring.”

“We’re disappointed because we put a lot of time in it,” Effingham Mayor Bob Utz said. “It was just some negatives mostly based on the speed with which they could do it, that was what bumped us out. I think we could have resolved a few of those things for them.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.