Sen. Durbin Quick to Revive Hope of FutureGen Commitment

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and other members of the Illinois congressional delegation plan to talk next week with President-elect Barack Obama's energy secretary nominee about possibly resurrecting plans for an experimental power plant in Mattoon.

Durbin has been blocking nominations to fill Department of Energy posts since the agency pulled support for the FutureGen plant in early 2007, and Durbin's spokeswoman said the Jan. 7 meeting with Steven Chu is a signal of just how important he thinks the project is.

"Durbin has been talking for months about keeping this project alive until the next administration," said spokeswoman Christina Mulka. "Durbin and the delegation have been able to do exactly that."

In fact, Durbin and the rest of the Illinois delegation met with the FutureGen Alliance, which had been a partner with the Department of Energy to build the $1.8 billion clean-coal plant, in November. That meeting, Mulka said, "ensured that both parties were in lock step and ready to hit the ground running on day one of the next administration."

The agency cited increasing costs to build the plant in Mattoon in east-central Illinois. But backers of the project, which was intended to prove carbon pollution from coal could be captured and stored underground, have blamed White House politics and hope to revive the project under Obama.

Durbin's meeting was welcome news to Michael Mudd, the CEO of the FutureGen Alliance. Mudd said it demonstrates the senator's commitment to the project, and he said he was confident that the project can go forward.

"When the new administration comes in, when the new Secretary of Energy restores funding and ... releases the record of decision (to build the plant), we should be able to get FutureGen at Mattoon back on the fast track," he said.