Quote of the Day
"The U.S. economy expanded at a faster clip than initially forecast in the third quarter, helped by more robust consumer spending and by stronger exports. The economy grew at a 2.5% annualized pace in the quarter, revised up from the initial estimate of 2.0%, the government said in its second estimate of quarterly gross domestic product. GDP growth was 1.7% during the second quarter.”
- Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch, 11/23/2010
For Release: Friday, October 28, 2005
Contact: David Gillies (Costello): (202) 225-5661
Steve Tomaszewski (Shimkus): (618) 344-3065
DOE OFFICIAL BRIEFS ILLINOIS DELEGATION ON FUTUREGEN
Washington - Mark Maddox, principal deputy assistant secretary for fossil energy, briefed the Illinois Congressional delegation yesterday on the current status of the FutureGen project. U.S. Congressmen Jerry Costello (D-IL) and John Shimkus (R-IL) invited Maddox to the meeting and were pleased with his presentation.
President Bush proposed building FutureGen, a 275-megawatt clean coal power plant with emissions equal to those of natural gas, in 2003. Costello and Shimkus have led the effort to locate FutureGen in Illinois, including hosting roundtable discussions concerning the project with local leaders, bringing state officials to Washington to explain why Illinois should host the facility, and leading a bipartisan effort in the House to secure funding.
Maddox updated the delegation on negotiations between the Department of Energy and the alliance of energy companies that are partnering on the parameters and funding of FutureGen, and predicted that they could be completed by the end of the year. The alliance will then send out invitations to interested states to submit proposals to host the project. The alliance was named earlier this year and was an important step forward for the project.
"We had a very good discussion and this was yet another opportunity to let the Department of Energy know how important FutureGen is to the State of Illinois," said Costello. "Our entire delegation sees the value in this project and its enormous potential for Illinois and the nation. The alliance is making great progress and site selection within a year is possible."
"FutureGen continues to move forward, and Illinois continues to be in a very good position," Shimkus said. "We look forward to working with the State when proposals are solicited."
Costello and Shimkus believe that Southern Illinois is the perfect place to locate the new plant. The region is rich in high-sulfur coal reserves and the Coal Center at SIUC is located there. In addition, the geology of the region is well suited to the carbon-trapping technology to be developed. Illinois is home to oil and gas reserves and deep saline aquifers that can permanently sequester carbon dioxide.
Coal underlies 65 percent of the state's surface and the Illinois coal industry annually produces approximately 35 million tons of coal and generates more than $1 billion in gross revenues. Currently, recoverable coal reserves in the state of Illinois amount to more than 30 billion tons. Illinois has almost one-eighth of the coal reserves in the United States and one-quarter of the nation's bituminous coal reserves. Illinois' coal reserves contain more BTU's than the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
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