The Department of Energy's new plans for the FutureGen project -- a 5-year-old initiative to develop clean-coal technology -- look fishy, policymakers said Tuesday.
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"The object of President Bush's FutureGen initiative was, and still is, to demonstrate on a commercial scale that our coal resources can be used in an environmentally responsible way," said Clarence Albright, undersecretary of energy, at Tuesday's hearing. "I believe the restructured program will bring us closer to that goal faster than the old program."
The new plan focuses on helping three or four commercial power plant construction projects incorporate CCS technology into their designs. The facilities would be paid for by the private businesses building them, but the Energy Department would fund the CCS equipment.
Reps. want old FutureGen back
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