This is an instance of DOE making a smart decision. It was being dragged into a project by its FutureGen partners (12 of the biggest power companies and utilities in the world) which would have likely benefited the commercial partners more than the pursuit of CCS knowledge.

Bud Albright, undersecretary, DOE: “The direction we’re going — let me make absolutely clear if there’s any question — we’re fully committed to. We think it’s a better direction…It’s a faster way to go…”

Congressional representatives for the state of Illinois are outraged at the loss to the state of the plan and the associated revenues.

There are unconfirmed whispers DOE pulled out of the project because the Mattoon location was picked over Texas sites that were among the 4 finalists for the big, costly plant.

That may have been the implication of Illinois Senator Durbin’s statement: “They wouldn’t even receive applications from the new sites until four weeks before the current administration ends…It isn’t a serious plan…Our goal is to keep the location in Mattoon until this administration packs and leaves town…”

Driven by Durbin and the other Illinois politicians, the debate has become a strategic and political one, without any interest in the merits of CCS or how best to actually find out if it works. The debate is likely to keep progress on any “clean” coal project paralyzed.

Considering that (1) “clean” coal is actually a meaningless oxymoron, and that (2) other lawmakers may push through legislation prohibiting the building of new coal-fired facilities without CCS capability, and that (3) climate change may soon make new coal-fired facilities without CCS capability too expensive to operate, this might turn out to be a sort of good thing.

Keeping the development of “clean” coal tied up in bureaucratic tangles probably means the U.S. will not be able to build new coal plants. Unfortunately, China and India will keep building coal plants, whether they have CCS capability or not.