(I’m in Illinois for the holidays, so I thought I’d focus on the Land of Lincoln for a few blog entries starting today.)
“Downstate Illinois,” as it’s referred to by Chicago reporters, is abuzz because FutureGen, the state-of-the-art coal-fired-yet-environmentally-friendly power plant has found its home: Mattoon, Illinois beat out nearby Tuscola, Ilinois and two locations in Texas. Take that, Longhorns!
The now-$1.5 billion project is going to be paid for by the federal government (73%) and $80 million in cash and incentives from the state of Illinois, and of course the cost is ballooning. In what could turn out to be a catastrophic mistake, Illinois lawmakers have agreed that taxpayers will pay for the plant’s insurance policy and cover any liability losses it incurs. (!)
The spokesman for Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, Joe Shoemaker, “dismissed [Department of Energy official James] Slutz’s statement [on FutureGen] as posturing.”
What did the “posturing” Slutz say? Spokesman Shoemaker paraphrases:
“This was a priority for the previous secretary of energy… He was willing to go along with some increase in the cost without making much fuss. Now, his successor has inherited it. The secretary of energy is now saying ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa — I’ve got a problem on my hands. I’ve budgeted X, and I’m going to be paying out Y.’”
And the problem with that is….? It’s now considered “posturing” to question why cost estimates for a taxpayer-funded project can go up 25% in a few years? The Secretary of Energy should be a good steward of what he or she is spending, since the money is not theirs, but the taxpayer’s. Apparently no one notified Senator Durbin’s office of this– weird, because Durbin could use a bit of the same attitude, rather than simply focusing on shoveling the pork home.
The DOE isn’t the only one with second thoughts: “Congress has already balked at FutureGen costs…” Wow, Congress (especially this Congress) has never balked at anything, so the situation must really be bad as far as FutureGen’s costs go. The 111th Congress did appropriate $75 million in pork for the plant in the last spending bill they just passed, though.
Tags: FutureGen, FutureGen coal, FutureGen costs, FutureGen Mattoon, Dick Durbin, Dick Durbin pork
This is one of the most corrupt projects in the state of Illinois. Over 70% of the farmers effected are against this project.
When the people impacted by this project ask to speak with the Governor who showed up but Pebody coal talk about who is in who’s pocket.
Bill
June 11th, 2011