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Editorial: With the stimulus approved, make FutureGen happen
Staff Editorial
Issue date: 2/18/09 Section: Opinions
President Barack Obama signed the economic stimulus bill Tuesday in Denver.
One of the biggest public spending projects since World War II, the package could provide a boost to the FutureGen project in Mattoon.
Pending a decision from the U.S. Department of Energy, funds from the $787 billion package could be used to fund the estimated $1.8 billion dollar package.
This project has been delayed by the Department of Energy since 2008.
It is time for this project to be realized.
FutureGen will use gasification to convert coal into hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
Using the hydrogen created, a turbine would be powered to produce electricity. A second turbine would be powered by steam created from the first.
The plant would 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.
The plant is expected to create 1,300 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs once completed. Construction would take more than two years.
Construction of the plant would create 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 operational, the facility could generate $135 million in statewide economic output, with an $85 million annual increase in Coles County.
In a time when economic stability and employment is questionable, adding jobs and pumping money into a project could show signs of future stability.
However, FutureGen would not bring an immediate end to national economic problems.
"I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems," Obama said Tuesday. "Nor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around.
"But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs."
In 2008, FutureGen was axed by the Department of Energy, yet the FutureGen Alliance remained committed to the project to further develop clean coal technologies.
It is time for the Department of Energy to release a Record of Decision allowing FutureGen to receive federal funding.
Years of working to bring the project to Mattoon should be realized.
The people of Coles County were ripped of once before, and it is time for results.
A project in the works before Obama became president, FutureGen needs to become a reality.
End the politics and start a project that could stimulate an economy.
The editorial is the majority opinion of The DEN editorial board. Reach the opinions editor at: DENopinions@gmail.com.
One of the biggest public spending projects since World War II, the package could provide a boost to the FutureGen project in Mattoon.
Pending a decision from the U.S. Department of Energy, funds from the $787 billion package could be used to fund the estimated $1.8 billion dollar package.
This project has been delayed by the Department of Energy since 2008.
It is time for this project to be realized.
FutureGen will use gasification to convert coal into hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
Using the hydrogen created, a turbine would be powered to produce electricity. A second turbine would be powered by steam created from the first.
The plant would 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.
The plant is expected to create 1,300 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs once completed. Construction would take more than two years.
Construction of the plant would create 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 operational, the facility could generate $135 million in statewide economic output, with an $85 million annual increase in Coles County.
In a time when economic stability and employment is questionable, adding jobs and pumping money into a project could show signs of future stability.
However, FutureGen would not bring an immediate end to national economic problems.
"I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems," Obama said Tuesday. "Nor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around.
"But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs."
In 2008, FutureGen was axed by the Department of Energy, yet the FutureGen Alliance remained committed to the project to further develop clean coal technologies.
It is time for the Department of Energy to release a Record of Decision allowing FutureGen to receive federal funding.
Years of working to bring the project to Mattoon should be realized.
The people of Coles County were ripped of once before, and it is time for results.
A project in the works before Obama became president, FutureGen needs to become a reality.
End the politics and start a project that could stimulate an economy.
The editorial is the majority opinion of The DEN editorial board. Reach the opinions editor at: DENopinions@gmail.com.
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