SPRINGFIELD — The nation’s largest electric utility appears poised to join efforts to build the experimental FutureGen power plant in Mattoon.
A top official with Exelon Corp. will appear with Gov. Pat Quinn at an event in downtown Chicago this morning.
The governor’s office Friday didn’t offer details about what would be announced, but his official schedule notes that the 10:30 a.m. news conference concerns the FutureGen alliance.
Doyle Beneby, a senior vice president with the Chicago-based utility giant, is scheduled to speak.
Others included in the announcement are Warren Ribley, Quinn’s chief economic development aide who has been active in promoting the FutureGen plant.
The announcement is among three scheduled Saturday by Quinn, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor in Tuesday’s election.
He also plans to travel to Rockford and the Quad-Cities to announce plans to bring passenger rail service to those communities.
Developers of the clean-coal project have been waiting for the U.S. Department of Energy to decide whether to move forward with building the plant. A decision is expected next month.
After the project was put on hold by the Bush Administration, it was revived pending a review by federal regulators. At the same time, the alliance, which includes a number of large energy companies and foreign investors, has been attempting to add additional private-sector partners.
Exelon, the parent company of ComEd and a major player in the nuclear power industry would be a significant addition to the alliance.
The coal-burning plant, which is designed to limit the emission of harmful pollutants into the air, is expected to cost upwards of $2.4 billion to build, with the Energy Department expected to kick in $1 billion.
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