For farmer Dave Davenport, the FutureGen 2.0 experiment is too big of a risk.
Davenport and his father, Andy Davenport, farm in northeastern Morgan County, near where FutureGen plans to pump carbon dioxide emissions from a Meredosia power plant using a new coal-burning technique. The overall project is projected to cost $1.65 billion, about $350 million more than originally estimated.
Representatives of Taxpayers for Common Sense, The Heartland Institute, Friends of the Earth and the Illinois Policy Institute held a press conference in Springfield Monday to discuss the implications of the project. They were particularly concerned with environmental repercussions and the cost to taxpayers.
The Davenports have been vocal opponents of FutureGen from the start, and they both spoke against the project Monday.
“We are very concerned about the high cost to energy consumers and taxpayers,” Dave Davenport said in a prepared statement, “the safety of the [carbon dioxide] storage technology, the effect of a waste site on property values, liability issues, the advantages our state lawmakers have given FutureGen and the manner in which much of the farmland within the original 1,000-acre sequestration circle was committed to FutureGen.”
He said the project will not help the environment or the public.
“It will be the coal companies and energy companies who will benefit from the increased coal usage and the increased energy prices to consumers,” Dave Davenport said. “We urge consumers and taxpayers to contact their lawmakers and voice their opinions against FutureGen 2.0 and any future attempts at implementing expensive carbon capture attempts.
By placing the [carbon dioxide] in the ground rather than in the atmosphere, we are only trading one environmental hazard for another.”
He closed by saying that if there is a chance the FutureGen experiment could go wrong and damage his family’s farm, he would be remiss in not trying to stop the project.
The Davenports have been part of a petition drive to keep the sequestration site from being located in northeastern Morgan County. Thus far, more than 500 farmers and landowners near the proposed location have signed the petition, according to Dave Davenport.
Speaking at the press conference, Ben Schreiber, climate and energy tax analyst for Friends of the Earth, said the government has a role in protecting the environment and fighting global warming.
“We think that FutureGen is nothing more than an indication of how much power the coal industry has in Washington, D.C., and in Illinois,” Schreiber said. “It is the product of billions of dollars of support from both the Illinois Legislature and from those in Washington, D.C. It is only going to happen with massive government financing.”
Schreiber also said that carbon capture and sequestration is an unproved technology.
“We have other alternatives to get our energy without increasing global warming and without increasing toxic air pollutants,” he said. “We have real potential in wind/solar. We should be investing government resources in these technologies and not in carbon capture and sequestration, in undemonstrated technology which still has a whole host of environmental side effects as well.”
Also speaking in opposition to FutureGen 2.0 were Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, and Kristina Rasmussen, executive vice president of the Illinois Policy Institute.
“This is a waste of money, it’s a bad idea, it’s not going to protect taxpayers and it’s bound to cost us money at the federal level and at the state level in the long run,” Alexander said.
Rasmussen said the Illinois Policy Institute’s main concern was how the project may affect state taxpayers.
Eli Lehrer, vice president of Heartland Institute, added that there is no evidence that the FutureGen technology has “any promise.”
Opponents of FutureGen 2.0 meet, discuss project (Jacksonville Journal Courier)
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