Illinois energy project on hold

The U.S. Department of Energy, frustrated by ballooning costs of an ambitious quest to build a virtually emissions-free power plant, told federal lawmakers Tuesday it plans to pull its support for a $1.8 billion project in Illinois, lawmakers said.

The Energy Department would not publicly divulge its intentions about the plant, dubbed FutureGen, or discuss what was said during the private meeting with lawmakers, saying only it planned an announcement within days.

But some lawmakers who attended the briefing later insisted any departure from building the coal-fired, 275-megawatt prototype power plant anywhere other than the central Illinois town of Mattoon would be unacceptable -- and grounds for a possibly nasty congressional fight.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, accused Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman of "cruel deception" of Illinoisans by "creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he has no intention of funding or supporting."

Durbin said Illinois' delegation in Congress "is going to make the case for FutureGen directly to the president."

The FutureGen Alliance, a coalition of power and coal companies, last month announced the plant would be built in Mattoon under a plan that called for the DOE to cover three-quarters of the cost. The site was chosen over Tuscola, Ill., and two sites in Texas.

But the DOE had wanted the announcement delayed until the project could be redesigned and the costs reduced. The department also said it wasn't ready to issue its final notice that Mattoon was environmentally acceptable.

Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for the alliance, said developers have heard from the Energy Department "about the need to restructure the program," but would not speculate about what might happen.

The alliance earlier this month offered to assume a greater share of the project's cost to allay government concerns, lowering the DOE obligation to the same level as when the project was announced in 2003 -- it then was $800 million and now is around $1.33 billion.

FutureGen is meant to test the commercial and environmental viability of using coal to generate energy while capturing the carbon dioxide and storing it underground. Scientists say the greenhouse gas is one of the drivers of climate change.

Rep. Jerry Costello, a Democrat from Belleville, accused Bodman's department of "cutting and running on a project that is critical to our nation's energy future."

In Mattoon, the community's public works chief, David Wortman, said he holds out hope FutureGen still will be built there.

"As far as I'm concerned it's not over" until the alliance and lawmakers from Illinois say it is, he said. "This is kind of beyond our ability to control. We showed that we were the best place in the nation to put FutureGen."