(Requests the DOE to Locate FutureGen in One of the Western States With Large Coal Deposits)

Introduced by the Energy & Public Lands Committee

WHEREAS, the U. S. DOE Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham has announced plans to build a prototype of the fossil fuel power plant of the future called FutureGen, a $1 billion venture that will combine electricity and hydrogen production with the virtual total elimination of harmful emissions; and

WHEREAS, FutureGen, sized to generate approximately 275 megawatts of electricity, will be one of the boldest steps our nation has taken toward a pollution-free energy future.  And, knowledge from FutureGen will help turn our nations coal from an environmentally challenging energy resource into an environmentally benign one.  The prototype power plant will demonstrate the best technologies the world has to offer; and

WHEREAS,  the Energy Department will ask the power industry to organize a consortium to manage the project and provide at least 20 percent of the costs.  Current plans call for the FutureGen plant to be designed and built over the next five years, then operated for at least five years; and

WHEREAS,  common air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides would be cleaned from the coal gases and converted to useable byproducts such as fertilizers and soil enhancers.  Mercury pollutants would be removed.  Carbon dioxide would be captured and sequestered in deep underground geologic formations or put to beneficial use; and

WHEREAS, coal is the workhorse of the U. S.’s electric power sector, supplying more than half the electricity the nation consumes.  It is also the most abundant fossil fuel in the U. S. with supplies projected to last 250 years or more;

WHEREAS, the Department of Energy will decide on a location to build the FutureGen power plant;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of State Governments-WEST (CSG-WEST):

1 - Applauds the U.S. DOE’s decision to fund and build the $1 billion FutureGen prototype power plant; and

2 - Requests the U.S. DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham to build the FutureGen prototype power plant in one of the Western states where massive coal deposits are located.

Adopted by the CSG-WEST Executive Committee on August 1, 2003
Assembled in Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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