FutureGen, DOE Look For Cost Cuts, New Partners

DAVID MERCER

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — The coal and power companies planning to build the experimental FutureGen power plant in eastern Illinois have reached an agreement with the Department of Energy to continue developing the project, one that calls for a push to cut costs and double the number of partner firms to help share those expenses.

Members of the FutureGen Alliance announced the deal Tuesday as they gathered in Mattoon for two days of meetings. The plant, intended to prove that a commercial-scale power plant can use coal while safely removing and storing the pollutant carbon dioxide, is planned for a site just outside the town.

FutureGen Chief Executive Mike Mudd said his goal is to increase the number of companies involved from the current nine to 20.

"I'd say that right now there are well over half a dozen companies that we have made contact with" that are interested, Mudd said at a news conference in Mattoon. "We're very optimistic that we're going to be able to get to that point or close."

The nine companies involved now are mainly coal miners, including St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp., Anglo American of the United Kingdom and Wyoming-based Rio Tinto Energy America.