FutureGen announcement still on

A spokeswoman for the FutureGen Alliance said Wednesday morning that the FutureGen Alliance still plans to name a site Tuesday to be the future home for the almost $2 billion near-zero emissions coal-fired power plant.

Laura Sheehan said the alliance had met the requirements of the environmental impact statement and will go forward with its plans to announce the final site. She also characterized a statement from the U.S. Department of Energy as “erroneous.”

“We owe it to the people of Texas and Illinois who have worked so hard for so long to make this announcement as we said we would before the end of 2007,” Sheehan said. “So we’re continuing to plan for success.”

A letter from James A. Slutz, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary of the DOE’s office of fossil energy, urged the Alliance to hold off making a decision on the final site for the power plant until the DOE can issue a Record of Decision, which wouldn’t be ready in time for a Tuesday announcement. That letter was released Tuesday by U.S. Rep Mike Conaway, R-Midland.

However, FutureGen Alliance officials countered Slutz’s letter with the promise that the winning site would still be announced at 9 a.m. CST Tuesday. Odessa is competing with Jewett in East Texas and the Illinois towns of Matoon and Tuscola for the next generation power plant.

Hoxie Smith, regional coordinator for the Permian Basin FutureGen Task Force, declined to comment on the confusion over the timing of the announcement. Smith said he and other task force members had been asked by FutureGen Texas officials in Austin not to comment until the Alliance and DOE work out the confusion.

Efforts to reach Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman or Slutz were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Earlier Wednesday, Permian Basin FutureGen Task Force spokeswoman Stephanie Sparkman said members of the task force plan to gather at 9 a.m. Tuesday at UTPB’s Center for Energy and Economic Diversification for the announcement.