[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 11, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3017-S3018]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Clean Coal Research Project

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, it was about 7 years ago when the Bush 
administration announced what they said was the most significant coal 
research project in the history of the United States. The name of the 
project was FutureGen. The object was to do research at a facility to 
determine whether you could burn coal, generate electricity, and not 
pollute the environment. It is an ambitious undertaking.
  The way they wanted to achieve it was to be able to capture the 
CO2 and other emissions, virtually all of them coming out of 
a powerplant burning coal, and to sequester them; that is, to stick 
them underground, find places underground where they can be absorbed by 
certain geological foundations, safely held there. Of course, it was an 
ambitious undertaking. It had never been done on a grand scale anywhere 
in the country.
  Well, the competition got underway and many States stepped forward to 
compete for this key research project on the future of coal. There were 
some five to seven different States involved in the competition. My 
State of Illinois was one of them. The competition went on for 5 years.
  Each step of the way, the panel of judges, the scientists and 
engineers would judge the site. Is this the right place to build it? Is 
it going to use the right coal? Can they actually pump it underground 
and trap it so that it will not ever be a hazard or danger at any time 
in the future? Important and serious questions.
  My State of Illinois spent millions of dollars to prove we had a good 
site. When it finally came down to a decision, there were two States 
left: Texas and Illinois. Well, I took a look around at our President 
and where he was from, and I thought, we do not have a chance. Yet the 
experts made the decision and came down in favor of Illinois. They 
picked the town of Mattoon, IL, which is in the central eastern part of 
our State, in Coles County, and said that is the best place to put this 
new coal research facility.
  We were elated. After 5 years of work, we won. After all of the 
competition, all of the different States, all of the experts, all the 
visits, everything that we put into it, we won the competition.
  Within 2 weeks, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, Mr. 
Bodman, came to my office on the third floor of the Capitol and said: I 
have news for you.
  I said: What is that?
  He said: We are canceling the project.
  I said: You are cancelling it? We have been working on this for 5 
years.
  He said: Sorry, it cost too much money. The original estimate was 
that this was going to cost $1 billion. When the President first 
announced it, we knew inflation would add to the construction costs 
over some period of time. But here was Mr. Bodman saying it cost almost 
twice as much as we thought it would cost; therefore, we are killing 
the project.
  Well, I was not happy about it. In fact, I thought it was totally 
unfair, having strung us along for 5 years, made my State and many 
others spend millions of dollars in this competition, go through the 
final competition and win, and then be told, within 2 weeks: It is 
over; we are not going to go forward with it.
  So I said to Mr. Bodman: Well, you are going to be here about a year 
more, and I am going to try to be here longer. At the end of that year, 
when you are gone, I am going to the next President, whoever that may 
be, and ask them to make this FutureGen research facility a reality.
  I told the people back home: Do not give up. Hold on to the land we 
have set aside. Continue to do the research work you can do. Bring 
together the members of the alliance--which are private businesses, 
utility companies, coal companies--not only from around the United 
States but around the world interested in this research and tell them: 
Don't give up.
  So we hung on for a year, literally for a year, and a new President 
was elected. It happened to be a President I know a little bit about, 
who was my colleague in the Senate, Senator Obama. When we served 
together, he knew all about this project and had supported it.
  So now comes the new administration and a new chance. The Obama 
administration has said to me and all of us interested in this project: 
There is one man who will make the decision: it is the Secretary of 
Energy, Dr. Chu. He is a noted scientist who will decide this on the 
merits. He is going to decide whether this is worth the money to be 
spent. So we made our appeal to him, we presented our case to him, and 
left it in his hands. We are still worried about this whole issue of 
cost.

  Bart Gordon, a Congressman from the State of Tennessee and serves on 
the House Science Committee, he sent the Government Accountability 
Office to take a look at FutureGen to find out what happened to the 
cost, why did it go up so dramatically.
  Well, the report came out last night. Here is what the report found. 
The report found the Department of Energy had miscalculated the cost of 
the plant, overstating its cost by $500 million because they made a 
mathematical error--$500 million.
  Taking that off the ultimate cost brings it down into the ordinary 
construction inflation cost. And so many of us who argued their 
estimate of cost was exaggerated now understand why. They made a basic 
and fundamental error calculating the cost of this project.
  Here is what we face. Now, 53 percent of all the electricity in 
America is generated by coal. Burning coal can create pollution. 
Pollution can add to global warming and climate change, and we have to 
be serious about dealing with it.
  This plant is going to give us a chance to do that. When the GAO took 
a look at the Department of Energy documentation, they also discovered 
a memo which said: If we kill the FutureGen coal research plant, we 
will set coal research back 10 years with all of the time they put into 
it. All of the effort they put into it would have been wasted and could 
not be replicated.
  So that is what is at stake. The ultimate decision will be made by 
Dr. Chu at the Department of Energy. I trust that he will find a way to 
help us move forward, but I want him to do it for the right scientific 
reasons.
  If we are successful, we will not only be able to demonstrate this 
technology for America but for the world. The reason why foreign 
countries are joining

[[Page S3018]]

us in this research effort is what we discover will help them. China is 
building a new coal-fired plant almost every week and is going to be 
adding more pollution to the environment than we can ever hope to take 
care of in the United States alone.
  But if we can find a way, a technology, a scientific way, using the 
best engineering and capture that pollution before it goes into the 
air, it is a positive result not just for the United States but for the 
world.
  From a parochial point of view, we happen to be sitting on a 
fantastic energy reserve right here in America. There are coal reserves 
all across the Midwestern United States, and almost 75 percent of my 
State of Illinois has coal underneath the soil. It is there to be had 
and used. But we want to use it responsibly.
  We want to make sure at the end of the day that we can use coal and 
say to our kids and grandkids: We provided the electricity you needed 
but not at the expense of the environment you need to survive.
  So this finding by the GAO has given us a new chance. We are looking 
forward to working with the Department of Energy. For those back in 
Illinois who did not give up hope, we are still very much alive, and 
this latest disclosure gives us a chance to bring the cost within 
affordable ranges. I hope the Department of Energy will decide to move 
forward on this critical research project.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WEBB. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The remarks of Mr. Webb pertaining to the introduction of S. 572 are 
printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and 
Joint Resolutions.'')