Thanks, but no thanks

The Department of Energy's plan for spending up to $1.3 billion on multiple smaller FutureGen-like clean-coal power plants is something Odessa's just not interested in.

"They've been talking about that for some time - it's a waste of time," Gary Vest, Odessa Chamber of Commerce director of economic development said.

The DOE is now in two weeks of public comment on the revised plan for FutureGen, a federally funded nearly $2 billion near-zero-emissions coal-fired power plant project the Department of Energy scrapped last winter.

Odessa was in the final four sites for consideration for the megaplant. The other sites were Tuscola and Mattoon in Illinois and Jewett in East Texas.

Senators and representatives from Illinois have pledged to fight the new DOE project, still hoping the full-scale FutureGen will go to the FutureGen Alliance-selected site at Mattoon.

Neil McDonald, former economic development director and member of the Permian Basin FutureGen Task Force, said he understands that.

"I certainly was disappointed we did not make the final selection," he said. "But, it was pretty significant to be in the final four. I can certainly appreciate where the Mattoon readership is coming from, having been selected and denied. That would have been a really bad circumstance."

Vest said Thursday that despite Odessa's close shot at the full-scale FutureGen, the chamber's not interested in pursuing the new smaller project.

"We're not even interested in bidding for it or trying for it," he said. "No. 1, we have a project bigger and better than FutureGen was anyway - better than FutureGen ever was. We're not interested in some scaled-down coal gasification project - we're just not interested. The economic benefits aren't there like they were for FutureGen. We certainly wouldn't give economic incentives like we would for FutureGen. It's not just something we're going to pursue."

While Odessa has no plans to jump on the new FutureGen bandwagon, Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams said the state would still like to see some of the project come to Texas.

"Of course we're interested," Williams said Thursday via phone from Austin. "The needs that the state has, in terms of knowledge of advanced technology and ways to use clean coal, is still a need Texas has."

However, Williams noted the way the DOE has structured the new program, it's not something where there would be an application made by the state.

"It'll be applications by commercial entities," he said adding that there would perhaps be an opportunity for the state to support a commercial entity vying for the project.

Meanwhile, Odessa hasn't let the ball drop on the FutureGen site. It didn't take long for the Permian Basin to get back in the game after the Dec. 18 announcement that FutureGen was going somewhere besides Odessa.

An engineer from Summit Power was out at the Penwell site near Odessa just two days later. Since then, the Odessa Development Corp. has reached an agreement with the Poulsbo, Wash.-based company to not offer the site to anyone else for 120 days.

Summit is looking to build a $2.5 billion power plant on the site formerly set aside for FutureGen.

Vest said negotiations are continuing with the Washington company, and things seem to be going well.

"They were in town last week, and we met with them," he said. "Things seem to be progressing. The hold up is the transmission lines, but the Public Utilities Commissions and ERCOT - the Electric Reliability Council of Texas - are working on the issue. We expect it to be resolved in the next few months, so things are looking good."

WHAT IS IT?

>> Poulsbo, Wash.-based Summit Power is considering a $2.5 billion power plant on the site formerly set aside for FutureGen. The four-year construction project would employ 1,200 to 1,300 workers, with 150 permanent jobs.

>> FutureGen was a federally funded nearly $2 billion near-zero-emissions coal-fired power plant. It was scrapped last winter.