For Release: Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Contact: David Gillies: 202-225-5661

COSTELLO TALKS TO PRESIDENT BUSH ABOUT FUTUREGEN

Washington - U.S. Congressman Jerry Costello (D-IL) used the opportunity of President Bush visiting Illinois to sign the Transportation Bill into law to discuss the FutureGen project and its importance for Illinois coal.  Costello attended the signing ceremony and had a conversation in which the President emphasized his commitment to the project.

President Bush proposed the FutureGen project, a 275-megawatt prototype power plant with emissions equal to those of natural gas, in 2003.  Costello has led the effort to build support for the project in Congress and in Illinois.

"I wanted to take this opportunity to again let the President know that I appreciate his leadership on clean coal issues and that Southern Illinois is the perfect place to locate the FutureGen," Costello said.  "He told me he wanted to see FutureGen get built, and we are going to continue to work to get it done."

Costello believes 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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