FutureGen is a Go

[mrbscott19]

Source: WCIA Channel 3 news Champaign

I just got this from a local news stations Facebook post. WCIA is located in Champaign, IL.

BREAKING NEWS: Senator Dick Durbin's office tells WCIA 3 the FutureGen project in Mattoon is a go. The project has been retooled and could include public and private funding. The project is in the $1.3 billion range. Full coverage tonight at 5, 6, 7 and 10.


Read more: http://illinoishomepage.net/fulltext/?nxd_id=165895

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FutureGen is public/private partnership to build the worlds first coal powered zero emission power plant.

[texastoast]

1. THIS COMPLETELY SUCKS

But I'm not surprised.

And it surely won't help this problem. This country is led by idiots. Complete, utter idiots.



No More Pine Creeks
When Arch Coal applied to mine at Pine Creek, we were hopeful that our Administration would take strong action to protect almost 3 miles of streams.

Sadly, this was not the case. The Environmental Protection Agency recently signaled their support for this mine to be created, and now the Army Corps has issued a permit that condemns Pine Creek.

The Pine Creek permit was issued despite a history of serious flooding, which local residents attributed to strip mining.


Take action and tell the EPA to stop the further degradation of the Appalachian Mountains and the contamination of precious streams and drinking water.

http://act.ran.org/p/dia/action/public/index.sjs?action

[NickB79]

2. Even if operated as hoped, it will not be zero-emission

Unless you discount the thousands of tons of toxic fly ash, infused with heavy metals like arsenic and mercury, generated annually as part of normal operating procedures.

And then you have to find somewhere to store the captured CO2 that is geologically stable enough to contain it for thousands of years safely.

AND you have to use only coal mined without the destruction of entire mountains, like much of coal in this country is currently mined.


Even then, the price of the electricity generated by a clean coal plant is quite a bit higher because you lose 10% of the plant's energy right off the bat to capture and liquefy the CO2 for storage.

[mrbscott19]

3. So emission free coal power plants are bad.......

got it! Even if they are not perfect they are a serious step up from what we have now.

[NickB79]

4. Well, show me an emissions-free coal-fired plant. FutureGen is not emissions-free.

Unless you can teleport away the toxic waste that is inherent in coal burning and find safe, millenia-long storage space for BILLIONS of tons of CO2 annually.

[texastoast]

5. They are better, but shouldn't even be considered at this late stage of the game

Even if the baffles can clean the particulate, you have to capture the CO2, and if anyone really believes that we can effectively capture and store this gas until the end of time, they are mistaken.

We have known this for decades and yet the entrenched corporatist worshippers of money continue to lead us all to hell in a handbasket.

And few in America even think about what the future is for their children. Or think and care about it enough to change their ways.

And it is sad.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. zero? I think not