Ohio to Bid for $1 Billion Prototype Coal Plant

By John Nolan, Dayton Daily News, Ohio

Apr. 23–DAYTON–It’s a $1 billion prize already being sought by 21 entities that have applied from nine states: the FutureGen project, which the U.S. Department of Energy envisions as a prototype plant to demonstrate how coal can be burned with near-zero atmospheric emissions to generate electricity.

Ohio plans to submit its bid by the May 4 deadline, and at least 20 other states are expected to do so as well. Gov. Bob Taft signed a bill this month to appropriate $1 million to supplement private funding for test drilling to obtain geological data about possible Ohio sites for the project.

Coal companies and utility companies, including Columbus-based American Electric Power Co., are lining up as hopeful participants in FutureGen.

The University of Dayton Research Institute, which specializes in fuel development and combustion work, is talking with Ohio State University about forming a research consortium of Ohio schools that could support FutureGen if it winds up in this state, said Philip Taylor, an environmental engineering scientist at the University of Dayton.

FutureGen could bring more than 1,000 construction and scientific research jobs to whichever state is awarded the project in the autumn of 2007, plus the possibility of other private investment. The federal government is to contribute $750 million of the cost, with the remaining $250 million or so to come from the utility companies, coal companies and state or local governments chosen to participate, Energy Department spokesman Craig Stevens said.

The plant is not expected to start operating until 2012. Planners say it is to be designed to generate hydrogen as an additional energy resource, and to capture the carbon dioxide pollutant emitted by the burning coal, so the waste gas can be pumped deep underground for permanent storage and kept out of the atmosphere. Dave Hamilton, a Washington-based official of the Sierra Club, said the federal government could do more to help Americans by stepping up investment in more efficient use of energy.

Tyson Slocum, director of the advocacy group Public Citizen’s energy program, is concerned that the attempt to pump carbon dioxide underground may create problems.

"The last time I checked, it’s pretty difficult to keep large amounts of materials trapped underground," Slocum said.

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