U.S. Government Cancels Clean Coal Power Plant

The U.S. government decided to cancel funding for a proposed "clean coal" power plant that would have captured the carbon dioxide spewed when burning the black rock, according to the New York Times. The so-called FutureGen power plant had recently selected a site--Mattoon, Ill.--but also seen its cost rise to as much as $1.8 billion, a price the government was not prepared to pay for what had been hailed by President Bush as a bold step toward a pollution-free future.

The cancellation is also a setback on the road to the so-called "hydrogen economy" as the 275 megawatt power plant also aimed to produce that energy carrier along with cleaner electricity from coal. The Department of Energy plans to fund several smaller power plants instead, after sinking $50 million into the FutureGen project.

But without a demonstration of such carbon capture and storage technology soon, the future of preventing the greenhouse gases emitted when coal is burned appears bleak, according to experts. Given that hundreds of coal power plants continue to be built around the world, such technology is needed to forestall catastrophic climate change, argues M.I.T. physicist Ernest Moniz.

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