After a thorough evaluation of 12 city proposals across the nation, the bid for hosting the FutureGen coal power plant was given to Mattoon, Ill., on Dec. 18. The technical committee for FutureGen Alliance visited the future location Tuesday and Wednesday.

Before the groundbreaking scheduled for 2009, this year will be spent for preparation.

“There’s a lot of work that will begin in 2008,” said Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for FutureGen Alliance. “A lot of work needs to be done to prepare for construction of the facility.”

Both the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance still have an investment in this power plant, though costs are beginning to prove higher than initially estimated.

“There’s some disagreement on the part of the FutureGen Alliance and the Department of Energy on the cost of the plant,” said Alan Gilmore, city administrator for Mattoon. “But FutureGen, they’re businessmen and realize that every moment they delay will incur more cost, so they want to get started.”

Initially, the power plant was estimated to be functional by 2012, however, Gilmore said it looks more likely it will be running in 2013. The increasing cost of oil has affected the cost originally estimated for the construction and operation of the site.

“A lot of its driven by the (increasing) cost of oil,” he said. “It costs to haul the components to the site, and that’s what’s causing the cost to go up.”

The Dec. 18 declaration of the Mattoon location has kept the necessary preliminary work from beginning sooner.

“We’ve been waiting several years to prepare for FutureGen, whether it be in Mattoon or Tuscola,” said Marcelyn Love, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. “We have had an outpouring of support for the project.”

For Illinois, having the FutureGen power plant in Mattoon has the potential to have a positive financial effect statewide.

The Department of energy estimated that the plant would create 1,300 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs, Love said.

“We’ll get some national and international exposure,” Gilmore said. “That will hopefully bring some more interest and development to Mattoon.”

The city has already seen an increase in its retail sector as a result of winning the bid for the plant, Gilmore said.

“We expect later we’ll see some industrial impact in Mattoon, some spin-off from FutureGen that would be compatible with the plant,” Gilmore said.

“What I see here is the whole community’s behind us,” he said. “More than 90 percent strongly supports this project.”

A survey done by Southern Illinois University at Carbondale stated that the plant would have a $1 billion effect statewide, Love said.

One reason Illinois was successful in winning the bid for the power plant was because of its knowledge of coal.

A reliable water source for the electricity generation and on-site injections for CO2 were favorable characteristics in the site as well, Pacheco said.

“Why we feel Illinois came in top for the site of FutureGen is because we’re a coal state,” Love said. “We have the ideal geological characteristics, and we know coal. We also presented a good financial plan.”