A coal capture project that the DOE has gone ahead with designed to help show how viable coal capture projects can be. The overall investment of about $1 billion is going to a Meredosia, Illinois project that will capture greenhouses gases at the coal-fired plant and store them underground.
FutureGen 2.0, as the project is being called, will be able to produce clean coal by reusing the greenhouse gases that are produced during the coal firing process. However, detractors say that this is just a way to get around using alternative energy. Proponents of the project simply say that the “war on coal” has gone on too long and this is a way to keep coal viable into the future.
Regardless of which side of the debate you are on, a reduction in greenhouse gases is a good thing, but one must wonder if this is a stroke of bad luck for alternative energy.