Spring Break
Mattoon picked as FutureGen site
Matt Daniels/Editor in Chief and Matt Hopf/City Editor
Issue date: 1/7/08 Section: News
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The city of nearly 18,000 beat out Tuscola and two cities in Texas - Odessa and Jewett ¬-for the world's first zero-emissions fossil fuel plant.
A huge roar came at 9:14 a.m. Dec. 14 from the standing-room only crowd at the Time Theatre in downtown Mattoon when Michael Mudd, chief executive officer of FutureGen Alliance, made the announcement via webcast from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
By 9:35 a.m., the marquee sign at the Time Theatre was changed from "FutureGen Announcement here" to "FutureGen We Got It."
The new plant is to be located in the northwest part of Mattoon at the intersection of Dole Road and Illinois Route 121 and will cost an estimated $1.5 billion to build.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2009, with the plant starting operations starting at the end of 2012.
A FutureGen Alliance team of 30 people will be in Mattoon today until Wednesday.
David Wortman, Mattoon public works director, said the team will visit the plant site and see how the utilities connect.
The team will also get to know each other and local and state officials. They also plan to get acquainted with the area.
Many FutureGen Alliance employees will move to the area, but the length of the stay depends on what their specialty is, Wortman said.
When asked about the U.S. Department of Energy's announcement to review the public-private project, he said the project is making progress.
"We're moving ahead, and the alliance is moving ahead," Wortman said.
The new plant is expected to create 1,300 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs once completed.
The construction phase of the project would create a more than $1 billion economic impact statewide and create 1,225 indirect and induced spin-off jobs, according to a Southern Illinois University-Carbondale study.
Once the facility becomes operational, it will generate $135 million in statewide economic output, with an $85 million annual increase in Coles County.
Tax revenues would likely increase by $8.1 million.
"FutureGen will bring jobs, technology and businesses - a whole new economic vitality for this region," said state Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet.
Eastern President Bill Perry was at the Time Theatre and said the university looks forward to helping FutureGen.
"We believe there will be opportunities downstream for our faculty to assist in terms of some of the scientific, technical and other kinds of impact of the project," he said. "We believe it will offer up opportunities for our students in terms of internships and other kinds of experience that will be helpful to them."
Angela Griffin, president of Coles Together, the group instrumental in bringing the plant to the area, brought two speeches with her to the theatre.
She tore up the speech she prepared if Mattoon was not chosen to be the home of FutureGen.
Griffin said FutureGen "changes our landscape forever."
"We dreamed the dream, and now our dream for Coles County means change for our nation," she said.
FutureGen's Coal gasification will be used to convert coal into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Using the hydrogen created, the turbine will be powered, thus creating electricity. A second turbine would create electricity from the steam from the first turbine.
The plant will capture and store 90 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions in the deep geological reservoirs more than one mile underground in the Mt. Simon Sandstone reservoir.
Creating 175 megawatts of electricity, the plant will be able to provide electricity to 150,000 homes.
Charleston Mayor John Inyart, who said Charleston and Mattoon worked together to come up with the required water needed for the project, said the full effects of FutureGen on Charleston's economy won't be felt for some time.
"I think there will be just project after project that will follow with FutureGen, and I think the possibilities are endless," he said. "(But), it's the best news we've heard around here in decades."
Inyart said the cooperation between the cities and organizations would benefit the whole area.
"Considerable effort has gone into this project from Coles Together, Mattoon and our Charleston staff, as well," he said. "It tells me that when we work together, we can make great things happen.
"While this is not a new concept, it is something that was not regularly practiced in the past. Coles County will see growth and prosperity as a direct result of cooperation between the cities, and having a professional organization like Coles Together leading the way is huge."
Matt Daniels can be reached at 581-7936 or at mwdaniels@eiu.edu
Matt Hopf can be reached at 581-7945 or at mthopf@eiu.edu.
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