IT WAS one of the Bush administration’s biggest and boldest efforts to develop clean energy, and had backing from both industry and foreign governments. Now it appears doomed.
On 30 January, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced it would not complete payment of its promised contribution of around $1.3 billion towards the FutureGen project, a coal power plant designed to use carbon capture and storage to cut emissions almost to zero. This was despite pledges to pay the remaining $500 million of the plant’s total bill from a group of energy companies called the FutureGen Alliance and governments in China, India, South Korea, Australia and Japan.
Energy secretary Samuel Bodman blames the decision on escalating costs, which the DOE estimates have doubled since the project was proposed in 2003. In its place he is proposing to share $156 million in 2009 between several smaller capture and storage projects at various power plants across the US, and to give more control to the private sector.
Advertisement
Spreading cash around smaller commercial projects appears at first glance to be in line with the wishes of some scientists. In March 2007, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published , controlled mainly by industry rather than government.
However, one of the report’s co-authors, Ernest Moniz, points out that FutureGen was closer to coming on stream than any other large-scale testbeds for carbon capture and storage, and he says that closing it down has set back progress by three to five years. “If we are serious about providing the option of coal use in a carbon constrained world, then we should be serious about getting these plants up and running,” Moniz says. “We need to do it with some urgency.”
Bart Gordon of the US House Committee on Science and Technology says the DOE acted too hastily. “Major initiatives should not be launched or cancelled on a whim,” he says.
“FutureGen was closer to coming on stream than any other large-scale testbeds”
Energy and Fuels – Learn more about the looming energy crisis in our comprehensive special report.
Climate Change – Want to know more about global warming: the science, impacts and political debate? Visit our continually updated special report.
