Siting FutureGen

The FutureGen Industrial Alliance will build the FutureGen plant on a site selected through an open, competitive site-selection process. A Request for Proposals to host the site was issued in March 2006. Seven states responded with a total of 12 proposals. A team of renowned U.S. and international scientists and engineers reviewed the proposals against a set of nearly 100 peer-reviewed, publicly-vetted criteria. These criteria reflected the environmental, technical, regulatory, and financial goals of the project.

Based on a thorough evaluation, the Alliance selected four candidate sites for further review. Each of these sites was subject to an environmental impact analysis as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The U.S. Department of Energy issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in November 2007. DOE is withholding its final Record of Decision (ROD), but concluded in the Final EIS that all four sites were acceptable from an environmental impact standpoint and all would move forward in the site evaluation process. In December 2007, the Alliance announced the selection of Mattoon, Illinois as the final site.

Mattoon, Illinois

The Mattoon Site consists of 444 acres in Mattoon Township, Coles County, Illinois. Most of the site is currently used for agricultural purposes. The site has rail access immediately adjacent to the northeast site boundary, and has adjacent 138 kV power lines and a 345 kV substation 16 miles away. The site proposers intend to use the combined effluent from the municipal wastewater treatment plants in Mattoon, Illinois and Charleston, Illinois for cooling water. A natural gas pipeline is less than one-half mile away. The CO₂ injection well for the Mattoon site is proposed to be on the site, therefore, no CO₂ corridor is necessary.