“CLEAN” COAL FROM THOSE WHO BUILT THREE MILE ISLAND

Disaster in Waiting: Three Mile Island Firm to Build FutureGen “Clean Coal” Plant
Jeff Biggers, August 17, 2010 (AlterNet)

"…The same firm – Babcock and Wilcox – that built the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is now in charge of building FutureGen 2.0, the nation’s incredibly expensive, dangerous and controversial “clean coal” plant in Meredosia, Illinois…

"Today’s breathtaking news that Big Coal and its utilities are ramping up construction of coal-fired plants in the largest expansion in 20 years is a telling reminder that the deathtoll from coal–from mining, transportation, burning and deposing of ash–will continue to pile up like a bad [action] film until we commit to a coal-free future and transition to clean energy."

Nuclear advocates say nothing happened at Three Mile Island but history says different. (click to enlarge)

"…The sorta kinda “clean coal” chimera that is FutureGen 2.0 is not only the nation’s billion dollar boondoggle of Big Coal welfare, but it’s a reminder that the corruptive power of Big Coal lobbyists is alive and well.

"For all of its sorta kinda illusive capture carbon and storage sloganeering, we only know two things for sure about FutureGen 2.0–it will dramatically INCREASE devastating coal mining operations and lock us into another century of coal, and it will continue to line the pockets of Big Coal lackeys in Congress and the White House."

It will take the Disney imagineers to come up with a workable "clean" coal plan. (click to enlarge)

"Consider…[T]he AP reported… [A Department of Energy official] who oversees the FutureGen clean-coal project is a past president of a company newly chosen to retrofit a western Illinois power plant instead of finishing the original project… Hailing FutureGen as the fight of his life, Big Coal snake oil salesman US Sen. Durbin continues to rake in the Big Coal and utility lobby dollars [documented at over $135,000], including contributions from FutureGen 2.0’s AmerenCIP utility sponsor… [T]he AP [also] reported…[an] eastern Illinois town backed out of…[FutureGen] after more than two years of political and financial ups and downs that saw the plans killed, revived and then radically altered…

"FutureGen 2.0 Still Has No Answers For Possible Leaks and Earthquakes and Peak Coal Crises…[and] Richard Heinberg has pointed out…at least 30 percent of the energy produced by burning coal will be needed to run the system for capturing, compressing, pumping, and burying CO2…[I]n the heartland, we wonder when Illinois will become the leader in the clean energy revolution, not the eternal springtime of dirty coal machinations."