In Mattoon, Future-Gen coal-cleaning plan gets a second chance

FutureGen looked fated to become NeverGen when the Bush administration pulled the plug 18 months ago on the showcase clean-coal experiment slated for Downstate Mattoon.

[Green Collar Man]

Give me a job, give me social security
Give clean coal a chance to survive
I'm just a person in Obama's unemployment line
Like McCain, i'm hardly alive
G.W. Bush and Cheney, Hannity, Limbaugh and Palin
I see them laugh in my face
But i've got wind power, and i've got the mill
I wanna be a charity case

I'll take those union hours, cadillac benefits
Keep on gassifying carbon into an Illinois hole
If it takes nationalization of Exxon to beat back carbon
I'm gonna be a green collar man

Made an energy stimulus without any refuse
Made switchgrass into energy, man
This is my last time in Obama's unemployment line
So like it or not i'll vote blue

Time and a half nights, long paid breaks
Keeping Pelosi-Reid on the Hill
If it takes covering the plains with windmill fans
I'm gonna be a green collar man

Keeping my mind on a living wage
When socialism is only a few months away
Tilting at windmills- can it be all i heard it was?
I close my eyes and maybe i'm already there

...

I'll take those union hours, cadillac benefits
Keeping ACORN registering those fake voters
If it takes nationalization of Exxon to beat back carbon
I'm gonna be a green collar man

Republicans don't understand

I'll take time and a half nights, long paid breaks
Keeping Burris-Murtha on Capitol Hill
And if it takes covering the plains with windmill fans
I'm gonna be a green collar- I'm gonna be a green collar- I'm gonna be a green collar man

[Jose Santiago]

This article is further proof of GW Bush and his hatred for working Americans. Help only those who are rich; the republican party mantra.

[Earthling]

If there were no rich in western democratic society, there would be no jobs, but too many of the modern rich don't appear to employ anyone, because they're not into manufacturing much any more.
It's a downhill spiral from here on for the west.

[windycity]

Seriously Mr. Green Collar Man, I remember the left crying out the past 8 years that Bush's presidency was going to be the end of the world. Give it a rest will you? I hear too many conservatives sounding like you and it makes me ashamed of my party....

[Earthling]

No presidency will cause the end of the world, not even Dubya could manage that.

The next time America gets a president who can solve world problems will be a first in American history.

[Hoodunnit]

While I cannot speak for the good or the bad of clean coal and the safety of burying deep into the ground I do have concern about the after shocks they experience from earthquakes in the east central part of Illinois where Mattoon (and Tuscola) are located.

[truckls]

This is the same plant they are locating 1.7 miles from my front door in Kemper County Mississippi.

This type of system for generation of electricity is not clean under any circumstance. The very process of construction, maintaince, mining, ash disposal, carbon capture, and storage completely negate any advantage over renewable generation systems. Look at the whole process cycle then add up the numbers. This is a jobs program not a future looking power genertion project. So take all that chamber of commerece retoric and pack it down into one picture. The rural explotation of low priced land and job hunger. This type of technology is not new, not clean, and not cheap it is just used as window dressing to make the local politco look good.

This is welfare check for an industry that has seen its day in the sun and wants to stand there as long as it can. So if it can create a lot of rural county lobbyist for the price of a job and some land so be it.

A good picture to see in regards to this type of project and technology is that of placing a new bag on the butt of an old horse.

Enjoy the smell

[NobodyYouKnow]

truckls wrote:

This type of system for generation of electricity is not clean under any circumstance. The very process of construction, maintaince, mining, ash disposal, carbon capture, and storage completely negate any advantage over renewable generation systems.

The point of it isn't to be perfect.

The point of it is to replace the thousands of dirty inefficient existinng coal plants.

In one go, reducing both pollutiuon and GHG emissions by a large factor as coal is the commonest fuel used for electricity generation, by a wide margin. And in many countries it is the only fuel, so increases will be coal powered.

If you want clean, abundant energy, develop a heavy lift rocket and start building solar power satellites. Otherwise..

[truckls]

The Point??? is dependant on the observers point of view. If you are dependant on the countinuance of coal based energy for your paycheck then it is in your best intrest to slow or belittle the comptetion. If well over half of our energy is derived from a single source of fuel, ie coal, is it nor in our best intrest as a nation to develope alternative new sources?

Do we look at this source of power as the future or the past.

The stone age did not end because we ran out of rocks

[Homer Ballard]

truckls wrote:

The Point??? is dependant on the observers point of view. If you are dependant on the countinuance of coal based energy for your paycheck then it is in your best intrest to slow or belittle the comptetion. If well over half of our energy is derived from a single source of fuel, ie coal, is it nor in our best intrest as a nation to develope alternative new sources?
Do we look at this source of power as the future or the past.
The stone age did not end because we ran out of rocks

Wow, you and "nobody you know" were part of the stone age! Who knew???

[truckls]

Homer Ballard wrote:
"Wow, you and "nobody you know" were part of the stone age! Who knew???"

Heck thats what my kids say about me all the time thought i would just go with what I know. LOL

[NobodyYouKnow]

truckls wrote:

The Point??? is dependant on the observers point of view. The stone age did not end because we ran out of rocks

Practicality. We need a shift away from high emissions NOW, not after we develop fusion.

And the analogy is a bit dull. We didn't burn the rocks. Hmm..

Actually, how do you know that the bronze age wasn't spurred by the declining sources of good flint nodules for knapping?

[anonymous]

I am all for improving local economies by developing jobs with new industry and it is a bonus to utilize local resources. The problem with this project is the poor technical design based on bad science. Seriously, does anyone actually believe that the CO2, sulfur, heavy metals, ect.. will stay deep underground and not enter the water supply? The people of Mattoon need to be more concerned with the basic life giving environment than the few jobs it would generate..