Plan to clean-up power plants unveiled
Bea Karnes
The Energy Department has unveiled its blueprint for spending up to $1.3 billion to develop a non-polluting, coal-fired power plant. The idea is to capture carbon emissions from such plants and permanently store them underground.
Under a plan announced Wednesday, the project known as FutureGen would go to several smaller projects around the country. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has vowed to
derail FutureGen after the department scuttled a project in Mattoon, Illinois, because the cost had ballooned to nearly double the original pricetag. Durbin plans to discuss the issue on Capitol Hill.
An Energy Department official says the Illinois town is out of the picture unless a developer builds a power plant there and applies to partner with the Energy Department.
