Questions continue to swirl around FutureGen project

[Radical Activist]

Dick Durbin's clean coal pork project is meant to eventually connect 56 coal plants in Illinois to a carbon pipeline network.

http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x155907155/Questions-continue-to-swirl-around-FutureGen-project

First, FutureGen was supposed to be a coal-fired power plant in Mattoon that would inject carbon dioxide deep within the earth, where it would remain forever. But escalating costs scuttled that plan.

Then FutureGen became a 175-mile pipeline between a power plant in Meredosia and Mattoon, where carbon would be sent. But Mattoon didn’t want to become a carbon dumping ground without the jobs a power plant would bring, and so civic leaders said no thanks. Now, the on-again-off-again plant, designed to demonstrate that coal can generate electricity without warming the planet, has become a project with as many questions as answers.

The U.S. Department of Energy surprised most everyone last month by announcing that the federal government will spend $1 billion to refurbish an Ameren plant in Meredosia and send carbon underground somewhere. Exactly where is a mystery. The DOE last week refused to make public the names of interested communities in response to questions from The State Journal-Register.

[Nihil]

1. Par for the course as far as so-called "CCS" goes ...

> The U.S. Department of Energy surprised most everyone last month by announcing
> that the federal government will spend $1 billion to refurbish an Ameren plant
> in Meredosia and send carbon underground somewhere. Exactly where is a mystery.

Joy to all US taxpayers! Your money is being wasted on coal company propaganda!
:party:

Well, there's a change ...

[Radical Activist]

2. The entire project is a ridiculous waste of money.

They already admit that it's cheaper to build wind, geothermal efficiency. Coal's only claim to relevance is that it's cheap (because it's heavily subsidized). What exactly is the point of building very expensive, dirty energy?