Not surprisingly, the Obama administration has revived the planning process for FutureGen, a demonstration project to generate electricity with coal but without carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced late last week a restart of work on engineering design and on a funding plan. He said that he foresees a final decision early next year on whether to proceed with construction. FutureGen is a partnership between the federal government and a consortium of large American and foreign utilities and mining companies, including a Chinese utility. The program was initiated by the Bush administration, which suddenly stopped it early last year on grounds that the cost estimates were excessive.
But it’s not surprising that the present administration has returned to it, for FutureGen represents a solution—and so far the only visible solution—to an urgent dilemma of energy and environmental policy. The United States, like the world generally, relies on coal to generate nearly half of its electricity. But burning coal emits massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide contributes to global warming.
FutureGen would construct a coal-burning generating plant in Mattoon, Illinois, to demonstrate the technology, known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), to capture the carbon dioxide and seal it permanently underground. The concept is clear in theory but it has never been tried on an industrial scale, and no private company wants to bear the risk of experimenting. Under FutureGen, the government would provide $1 billion already appropriated by Congress in the economic recovery legislation, and the consortium has pledged an additional $400 million.
The idea of developing and demonstrating technology to sequester carbon is widely popular in Congress, where many members acknowledge the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions but see no way to meet the country’s demand for electricity without coal. The Waxman-Markey bill to slow climate change would set up a permanent Carbon Storage Research Corporation, funded by a charge on burning fossil fuels.