Illinois plans for other clean coal

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Though the Mattoon, Ill., FutureGen plant was canceled, other projects stay.

The administration of President Bush canned the experimental FutureGen power plant, but a similar plant by Tenaska Inc. awaits legislation to move forward, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Tenaska Inc. wants to build a $2.5 billion next-generation "clean coal" power plant a mile northeast of Taylorville in central Illinois. The company has an option to buy land for the project, has completed pre-engineering and obtained a state air permit.

The project cannot enter long-term power contracts with the state's two big utilities, Ameren and Commonwealth Edison, however, since the state's market was deregulated.

"We've done as much as we can as far as talking to contractors," said Bart Ford, Tenaska's vice president of business development. "We're to the point where we need to have the legislation."