US Energy Department says it won’t build FutureGen plant in Ill., but will store carbon there

US Energy Dept. to drop FutureGen plant in Ill.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The U.S. Department of Energy says it will drop plans to build a futuristic power plant in eastern Illinois but still use the location to store carbon dioxide underground.

The so-called FutureGen project originally was to include an experimental coal-fired power plant near Mattoon. Carbon dioxide from burning the coal would have been stored underground.

Now, the department says an existing plant in western Illinois will be retrofitted and carbon from that plant piped to Mattoon for storage.

FutureGen has been in the planning stages for years. Developers had been working the past 11 months to cut its costs.