CONGRESSMAN TIMOTHY V. JOHNSON | Representing the 15th Congressional District of Illinois

Washington, Aug 10, 2010 - Rep. Timothy V. Johnson issued the following statement after learning that Sen. Dick Durbin wrote city leaders in Mattoon Monday to tell them they had a week to decide whether to proceed with hosting a reconfigured and watered-down FutureGen project.

“Sen. Durbin, we now know, has been aware of the Department of Energy’s interest in reconfiguring this project for a matter of months. But it wasn’t until last Thursday that he informed the people most affected. Now he has insulted them a second time within a matter of days by giving them until the end of the week to decide whether to proceed.

This kind of decision-making should not occur in a democracy. In civil societies, we abide by our promises, we consult, we deliberate. I’m deeply saddened by the actions of this federal bureaucracy and those who seek to represent it. I, along with State Sen. Dale Righter and State Representative Chapin Rose, will continue to seek answers and solutions for the people of Mattoon. The community has been wronged.

This site and this configuration of a generation plant and sequestration repository were peer reviewed in a long and arduous scientific examination that concluded there was no better place in the country for this undertaking than Coles County. Sen. Durbin’s assertion that he will ask other communities to host the sequestration facility if Mattoon doesn’t go along by the end of this week is not only insulting, but completely ignores the role of science in selecting this site.

Mattoon needs time to digest this abrupt change in direction. There are many questions to be answered and I intend to pursue those with the Department of Energy. State Sen. Dale Righter has also raised some serious questions of conflict of interest within the Department of Energy and those questions also deserve a response.

In the end, I will support whatever the community of Mattoon wants. But what I will not do is issue ultimatums, bully my constituents or dictate their future to them.”