For Release: Tuesday, July 1, 2003
Contact: David Gillies: 202-225-5661

COSTELLO HOSTS FUTUREGEN ROUNDTABLE AT SIUC

Washington - U.S. Congressman Jerry Costello (D-IL) hosted a roundtable discussion at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) today concerning the Bush Administration's FutureGen project. The initiative seeks to build a 275-megawatt prototype power plant with emissions equal to those of natural gas. Governor Blagojevich, U.S. Senators Durbin and Fitzgerald, and U.S. Congressman John Shimkus co-hosted the event, and Dr. C. Lowell Miller, Director of the Office of Coal Fuels and Industrial Systems at the Department of Energy, made a presentation on the specifics of the project.

"We had a very productive meeting," said Costello. "Everyone leaves here today better informed. The State of Illinois made a compelling presentation as to why the FutureGen plant should be located here. Building this plant is an important step in burning coal as cleanly as possible and it would mean jobs for Southern Illinois."

Costello believes that Southern Illinois is the perfect place to locate the new plant. The region is rich in high-sulfur coal reserves and the Coal Center at SIUC is located there. In addition, the geology of the region is well suited to the carbon-trapping technology to be developed. Illinois is home to oil and gas reserves and deep saline aquifers that can permanently sequester carbon dioxide.

Coal underlies 65 percent of the state's surface and the Illinois coal industry annually produces approximately 35 million tons of coal and generates more than $1 billion in gross revenues. Currently, recoverable coal reserves in the state of Illinois amount to more than 30 billion tons. Illinois has almost one-eighth of the coal reserves in the United States and one-quarter of the nation's bituminous coal reserves. Illinois' coal reserves contain more BTU's than the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Costello is a senior member of the House Science Committee and the Energy Subcommittee. He authored important clean coal provisions to enhance research and demonstration projects that were added to the House energy bill earlier this year. The Senate is considering similar legislation.

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