"FutureGen To Be Shut Down After Feds Withdraw $1B in Funding"

"CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Coal companies working with the government on the long-planned $1.65 billion FutureGen clean-coal project said Tuesday they have no choice but to shut it down after the Department of Energy suspended the majority of its funding.

The department confirmed that it will not provide the $1 billion in stimulus funding it had committed to the project, which aimed to refit a coal-fired power plant near Meredosia in western Illinois and store carbon dioxide from the coal underground.

The FutureGen Alliance, the companies working on the project in western Illinois, said they were disappointed by the news but had no way to make up the money."

David Mercer reports for the Associated Press February 3, 2015.