WASHINGTON — The Energy Department is moving forward on a futuristic coal-burning power plant in Illinois that the Bush administration had declared dead.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Friday that reviving the FutureGen plant is an important step that shows the Obama administration’s commitment to carbon-capture technology.
“Developing this technology is critically important for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S. and around the world,” Chu said.
Negotiations for the FutureGen project have been underway since the Obama administration announced it would consider reviving the project. Under President George W. Bush, the project was canceled after cost overruns that a congressional auditor later said were based on false projections.
The Energy Department will commit more than $1 billion to the project, under the agreement announced Friday, with the government’s contribution drawn almost entirely from federal economic-stimulus funds.
The project’s business partners, known as the FutureGen Alliance, will agree to contribute as much as $600 million during the next six years. The FutureGen Alliance will be allowed to raise funds for the project to defray government costs. The agreement also opens the possibility of eventually selling the facility — which initially will be largely an experimental project to show the feasibility of carbon capture and sequestration — to private entities for use as a commercial power plant.
Coal-burning power plants are the leading source of emissions of carbon dioxide, the major gas linked to global warming.
