A thought on the restructuring of FutureGen

If the DOE was serious about this restructuring, they would build 1 plant at each of the four sites, there is no need to readvertise and take new proposals. That is simply a waste of taxpayer money since they already know the 4 best sites for such a project. They could start this new plan in Mattoon today.

Now here is why they don't. If you read the final report on the four sites, you will find that there is mineral rights issue with the Texas sites. To obtain the mineral rights for required injection plume would likely take eminent domain proceedings that take three years (kinda ironic isn't it). Tuscola also had issues with property rights that may have ultimately called for eminent domain. Only the Mattoon site could FG start today, that was one of the major deciding factors of their choice.

So by asking for new proposals, that buys Texas time to solve their mineral rights issues, which also will sour Illinois into not re-applying, leaving Texas with the best site.

DOE plays their hand

This stinks to high hell. Monday, this article is printed in Odessa Texas http://tinyurl.com/29wwvy . Tuesday DOE pulls funding for FutureGen. I try not to buy into conspiracy theories about funneling money to buddies in Texas, but this one is hard to deny. Look at the timeline:

DOE is 100% on board till early December when the Alliance says they are going to announce. My bets are they informed the DOE at this time they intended to choose Mattoon. Suddenly, the DOE warns of moving to fast. My bets are they were scrambling to find a way to disqualify Illinois.

The Alliance thumbs their nose at the DOE and announces anyway, they know where the best spot is and figure by announcing, they can back the DOE into a corner and take their politics out of it. WRONG, the DOE announces THAT DAY they weren't on board, stating cost as the biggest problem.

The DOE then announced they wanted to break the project into 4 smaller projects to save money. OK, when does it look like we were born, how can 4 sites be cheaper than one? My guess is they planned to start one of those smaller sites in Texas first, then say it was to expensive to start any of the other sites.

But the Alliance objected to breaking the project up and countered with offering to pay all additional costs above what US public funding was originally allocated. The silence from the DOE was deafening. Until today when they announced they are pulling the project.

But what about Monday's article in the Texas paper? Looks to me like they are ramping up for the project under a different name. Remember, Texas offered a $1billion incentive package. What does that mean? The DOE can either spend their $700 million with the FutureGen Alliance in Mattoon, or they can spend the same amount of money and give their plant to their Texas buddies without the FutureGen Alliance.

Illinois giving away its rights – Electoral College undermined

Since the 2000 election, there have been calls to abandon the Electoral College. Most people remember learning in school that it is possible to win the popular vote, but not the presidency, but no one ever expected it to happen. The only other time this happened was in 1888 when Benjamin Harrison was elected.

The Electoral College is an important function of states’ rights. Each state is granted one electoral vote for each member of congress. The House of Representatives is based on state’s population, but the each state has two members of the Senate regardless of population. This is to help even distribute power across the country instead of the population centers making all the decisions. Without this power, candidates would never campaign away from the coasts. Fly over country would truly be fly over country.

A bill has passed the Illinois Legislature and awaits the Governor’s signature to give Illinois’s Electoral Votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of how the citizen’s of Illinois voted. They essentially are giving the voice of Illinois away; saying is “We’re not going to listen to those we represent, those who elected us. Instead we are going to stick our fingers in the air and see what the rest of the country thinks”. Candidates no longer need to pay attention to Illinois as long as they have the coastal votes sewn up.

House Bill 1685 is titled “Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote Act”. It states that once enough states pass similar bills to cover half the Electoral College, they will collectively give their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of the popular vote of each state.

Those in favor of such a measure don’t understand the importance of State’s rights. Presidential candidates need approval not only by population, but by regions as well. Without the Electoral College a states with large land area but low population will be unrepresented.

This underhanded attempt to change the constitution and neuter the Electoral College has been mostly undetected. It may be too late for Illinois, but this needs topic needs to be brought to the front and debated fairly. Everyone needs to understand what is at stake here. It is much more then an unpopular president not getting elected eight years ago.

The Electoral College has remained unchanged at the Federal level since the 12th Amendment was passed before the 1804 election. In the 200 years it has existed in this form, it has been in question only five times. Three of these anomalies were due to political inexperience and have since been corrected.

There are similar bills being debated in 47 states. Governors in New Jersey and Maryland have already signed their versions of the bill. Efforts to eliminate the Electoral College have failed in the past, mainly due to the proposals of its replacement appear more problematic then the College itself. This proposal is no different. However, the under the radar approach may succeed in undermining the Electoral College.

The Short-term Impact FutureGen

1500 construction jobs mean those who work in construction and live in town will be able to have work for the next few years. Those filling positions from out of town have an impact on rental houses and hotel in the area. Finding a house to rent in Mattoon will be slim pickins for the next few years. This will make landlords very happy. Out of town workers here for short term stays will fill the hotel rooms, not only generating revenue for the hotel owners, but tourism dollars for the city as well. Mattoon, like most towns, charges a hotel/motel tax that goes directly into the tourism fund. Restaurants and gas stations will see a boost from those commuting here from the surrounding area.

Fuel suppliers will see a boost in sales to construction equipment. Other construction service businesses such as Birkey’s and Neil Tire will benefit. When that backhoe at the site gets a flat, whom do you think they are going to call?

Infrastructure around the site will have to be upgraded. Dole Road will have to be improved and the intersection at 121 will have to be rebuilt. This means work for Walker Construction and Howell Asphalt. MC will be selling enormous amounts of concrete. A waterline will need to be built from both Mattoon and Charleston’s sewer plants for cooling water to the plant. This is work for area piping contractors. Power grid upgrades means work for electricians.

The studies completed during the selection process have already piqued the interest of many companies worldwide on locating here. Contact the Chamber of Commerce to verify that. The fact that these studies have been done means a company looking for a location will not have to pay for them. That is why it is not a total loss for Tuscola or the Texas sites. They can now market their towns with the results of these studies.

All of these jobs are a result of FutureGen, but not one of them is at the plant itself. All of this will be coming about the same time as the unemployment peak of the forecasted recession. This could insulate this community from such event.
Now if only the Department of Energy doesn’t screw things up and pull the plug on the entire project.