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Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced on Friday plans to restart the country's first clean coal power project, scrapped by the previous Bush administration as too expensive.

Under an agreement with the non-profit FutureGen Alliance, the Energy Department will take the first steps toward developing the first U.S. commercial scale-carbon capture and storage project, to be located in Mattoon, Illinois.

"Not only does this research have the potential to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., but it also could eventually result in lower emissions around the world," Chu said.

The FutureGen project was scrapped by the Bush administration due to a ballooning price tag of some $1.8 billion. But a congressional report released in March accused the Bush administration of inflating the cost in order to scrap the project.

President Barack Obama and other Illinois politicians have expressed support for the project in their home state.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Jun 13th, 2009 at 11:53:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
is rather expensive and makes all alternatives look much smarter. This is all a political game. The incumbent coal-fired utilities should be bribed to shut their plants down; it will be cheaper in the long run.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sun Jun 14th, 2009 at 06:09:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, but "clean coal" sounds so good. It's exactly (in the communications sense) like "clean-burning" for maize ethanol in cars. It makes the average citizen feel good.

I don't know who came up with these slogans, but they took a (tobacco) leaf out of cigarette advertising's book. "Smooth tasting" and "lite" and "low tar" and so on.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Jun 14th, 2009 at 07:54:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
There's a very entertaining ad campaign about that running in the US.  

Now where are we going and what's with the handbasket?
by budr on Sun Jun 14th, 2009 at 12:50:55 PM EST
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