US backs construction of first-ever clean coal plant

Jun 12, 2009, 16:38 GMT

Washington - The US government on Friday tentatively backed the construction of an experimental clean coal-fired power plant, reviving a controversial project that has been more than five years in the making.

The Energy Department said it was prepared to contribute 1.073 billion dollars to the plant, which is to be built in Illinois by a coalition of companies known as the FutureGen Alliance.

The Illinois plant is still only in its planning stages. The Energy Department instructed the group to complete its design, cost estimates and private funding sources by early 2010, when a final decision on whether to back the project will be made.

FutureGen insists it can build a coal power plant - at a total cost of about 1.5 billion dollars - which emits virtually no carbon dioxide that is blamed for global warming. It would use carbon capture and storage technology that has yet to be tested on a broad scale.

Coal is currently one of the dirtiest methods of generating electricity. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the FutureGen project 'holds great promise as a flagship facility to demonstrate carbon capture and storage at commercial scale.'

The public-private initiative has been off and on since its launch in 2003. Former president George W Bush halted the project in 2007 over rising costs, but his successor Barack Obama's administration signalled earlier this year that it might revive the plant.

The US coal industry and climate groups for months have been caught in a heated debate over the merits of clean coal technology, launching competing television advertisements and lobbying Congress.

Some environmentalists argue clean coal is an unrealistic concept, which minimizes the role that coal currently plays in causing global warming.

Coal supporters argue it is unrealistic to fully abandon an energy source that is abundant in the United States and provides about half of the country's electricity needs.