Draft report leaves all four proposed FutureGen sites in the hunt

None of four locations being considered for a $1.5 billion clean-coal power plant was ruled out or given an edge in a draft environmental assessment released Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy said.

The department will seek public input on the report before a site is chosen in September for FutureGen, a prototype coal-fueled power plant touted as having almost no air emissions.

A group of coal companies and utilities is working with the Energy Department to develop the plant, which would store carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping "greenhouse" gas, underground. The list of possible locations was narrowed last year to Mattoon and Tuscola, in eastern Illinois, and Odessa and Jewett, in Texas. Public meetings are planned in each town in June.

"Overall, I can't say that there's a clear-cut leader," said Mark McKoy, a Department of Energy environmental official working on FutureGen.

The extensive report rated each site for a broad set of concerns, ranging from air quality to water supply and potential for the release of stored carbon and other chemicals. Among the conclusions:

The risk that carbon dioxide, stored underground beneath a layer of rock, would be released through existing wells is highest at the Jewett site because there may be dozens of wells drilled through the rock. There are few wells drilled through the rock at the Odessa location and none known at the Illinois sites.

Power-plant failure resulting in the release of toxic chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide would potentially be most harmful at the Mattoon site because more people live nearby; such failure would be least problematic at the Odessa site.

Plant emissions shouldn't be high enough to exceed federal air quality standards at any of the sites.

The greatest risks for damage to wildlife, wetlands and cultural resources during construction would be at the Texas sites, because utilities would have to be run farther to serve the sites.

The FutureGen Alliance, which will determine the plant's location, said the report was a major milestone.

"It keeps this project moving forward at a fast pace," said Michael J. Mudd, chief executive officer of the FutureGen Alliance.

The project is expected to create more than 1,000 construction jobs and, once the plant opens in 2012, 150 permanent positions. Both Illinois and Texas have offered financial and other incentives.

Officials in both states said Friday that they were still reviewing the report, but emphasized many of the same strengths they've used to pitch the proposed locations all along.

In Illinois, officials tout the proximity of Mattoon and Tuscola to the state's coal fields. Mattoon is about 185 miles south of Chicago, Tuscola 160.

Advantages also include the geology beneath the two sites, according to Bill Hoback of the office of coal development in the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Carbon dioxide would be stored 5,500 to 7,000 feet below ground in sandstone formations, and would be held in place by layers of shale, he said.

He called the shale "seals that have held salt water in place for hundreds of millions of years."

In Texas, the far-flung sites each have their own advantages, according to Chuck McDonald, spokesman for FutureGen Texas.

The Jewett location, about 135 miles northwest of Houston, sits next to a 2,500-megwatt coal-fired power plant, he said, meaning coal is already shipped to the location, and much of the infrastructure already is in place.

A pipeline carrying carbon dioxide for the oil industry already passes through the Odessa site, 350 miles west of Dallas, he said.

"We think that's a real strength that's unique to the Odessa proposal," he said.

Some environmental groups have been skeptical of the plant's need for government help two-thirds of the cost will be covered by the Energy Department and its ability to keep carbon dioxide underground.

Rebecca Stanfield, director of Environment Illinois, said Friday she hadn't had time to review the draft report.

The Department of Energy will hold public meetings on the report June 19 in Odessa, June 21 in Jewett, June 26 in Mattoon and June 28 in Tuscola. Written comments will be accepted through mid-July.