Department of Energy June 1, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces the availability of the document, Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the FutureGen Project (DOE/EIS-0394D), for public comment. The draft environmental impact statement (EIS) analyzes the potential environmental consequences of DOE's proposed action to provide federal funding for the FutureGen Project. The Project would include the planning, design, construction and operation of the FutureGen facility, a prototype electric power and hydrogen gas generating plant that employs coal gasification technology integrated with combined-cycle electricity generation and the capture and geologic sequestration of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The project would also include a research platform, which would be a principal feature of the prototype plant. The proposed action would be undertaken by a private sector, non-profit consortium of industrial participants known as the FutureGen Alliance, Inc., (the Alliance). The Alliance includes some of the largest coal producers and electricity generators in the world. Under a Cooperative Agreement between DOE and the Alliance, the Alliance would be primarily responsible for implementing the FutureGen Project, while DOE would guide the Alliance at a programmatic level to ensure the FutureGen Project's objectives are met. The Department prepared the draft EIS in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations that implement the procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), and DOE procedures implementing NEPA (10 CFR part 1021). DOE identified four reasonable alternative sites for analysis in the EIS. Based on the EIS, DOE will determine which sites, if any, are acceptable to DOE to host the FutureGen Project. The four sites currently being considered for the FutureGen Project are: Mattoon, Illinois; Tuscola, Illinois; Jewett, Texas; and Odessa, Texas. The Project would incorporate cutting-edge research, as well as help develop promising new energy-related technologies at a commercial scale. Performance and economic test results from the FutureGen Project would be shared among all participants, industry, the environmental community, and the public. The proposed power plant would be a 275-megawatt (MW) output Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) system combined with CO2 capture and geologic storage at a rate of at least 1.1 million tons of CO2 per year. The research facilities and power plant would be constructed at one of the four alternative sites identified above. The potential environmental impacts of locating and operating the FutureGen Project at each of the alternative sites are evaluated in the draft EIS. The draft EIS also analyzed the No-Action Alternative, under which DOE would not share in the cost for constructing and operating the FutureGen Project. Without DOE funding, neither the Alliance nor U.S. industry would likely undertake the commercial scale integration of CO2 capture and geologic sequestration in deep saline reservoirs with a coal-fueled power plant in a comparable timeframe.

In compliance with the requirements of section 3506(c)(2)(a) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. No. 104-13), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the information collection described below.