According to a number of news reports, starting early this morning and continuing up to the present, my senior U.S. Senator and the number 2 man in the senate, met today with new Energy Sec. nominee Chu, to discuss the possibility of renewing the "FutureGen" project slated for the Mattoon, Illinois. This isn't the first time I have written about FutureGen. http://www.ruralthoughts.net/?q=node/25

In a nutshell, FutureGen is a coal fired power plant which purportedly captures the CO2 and then injects it into the ground for "permanent" storage, thus keeping it from getting into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. That is supposed to make it totally acceptable from an environmental point of view. I, myself, don't buy

According to the St. Louis BizJournal http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/01/05/daily51.html
"After facing resistance to the project from the Bush administration, Durbin had blocked three energy department nominations.

'It is clear after today’s meeting, Dr. Chu understands the importance of FutureGen to Illinois and is fully aware of the delegation’s commitment to moving the project forward,' Durbin, D-Springfield, said in a statement.

"The meeting also included Ill. U.S. Reps. Tim Johnson, R-15th; Judy Biggert, R-13th, Bill Foster, D-14th; Jerry Costello, D-12th; and Jan Schakowsky, D-9th, along with staff from the office of Rep. John Shimkus, R-19th...With President-elect Barack Obama’s administration headed to Washington, supporters see new prospects for federal backing."

Considering that Durbin convinced Obama to run and is his number one supporter in the Congress, it is highly likely that what Durbin wants Durbin gets. But isn't it ironic that this meeting comes on the heels of one of the most serious coal disasters that has occurred in the midwest - the coal ash sludge pond dam failure and the flooding of hundreds of acres of residential land with hundreds of millions of gallons of coal ash sludge in Tennessee.

And while, if you believe the hype, and there is no long term data, and not much short term data, that the process works, even if it does trap the CO2 forever, which I doubt, it doesn't address the environmental issues caused by coal ash sludge ponds, the mining of coal itself, and the transportation of that coal - much of it from Wyoming to the east on large coal trains. Those processes themselves create much carbon release and other environmental impacts.

But Durbin and the other politicians see it as jobs, and right now jobs may trump all. But ask those folks in the southern Appalachian mountains, or those which have been undermined by "longwall" mining only to see their houses sink into the ground, or the many other places that coal mining has destroyed or degraded, or those living near coal ash ponds or sludge ponds, whether or not they support FutureGen. But Durbin and the others don't want to go there. They want to go with the quick and dirty jobs. It's greenwashing of a very unfortunate kind at a very unfortunate time.

Durbin is really a good guy all in all. I have met him more than once. For the most part, I like him, I have voted for him every chance I have had, and I am proud to have him as senator compared to most of the senators. So it is a little surprising to see him so gung ho over this what I consider to be superficially environmentally benign coal plant. It's a much more complex issue. If we have FutureGens all over the place in the near future, one knows that the impacts are going to be severe. I would have to point out to Durbin those hand painted signed in the middle of the coal ash spill in Tennessee which simply asked, "Clean Coal?"