TUSCOLA – Approximately 180 people jammed into the Tuscola community center Thursday evening to give support and get additional information about the possible siting of the FutureGen experimental coal-fueled power plant in Tuscola.

This was the final public hearing being conducted as part of the environment impact statement being prepared by the Department of Energy. The findings by the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance as a result of these hearings will decide whether Illinois or Texas will get the $1.5 billion plant, which is being promoted as the “cleanest coal-fueled power plant in the world.”

Michael Mudd, CEO of FutureGen Alliance, Inc., a consortium of twelve private companies supplying $400 million of the money to make the FutureGen plant happen had nothing but praise for the people in Tuscola. “We aren’t here because of what we have done,” Mudd said, “but because of what you and your local leaders have done.”

Congressman Chapin Rose rushed into the meeting late, having left Springfield after a grueling day at the capitol. “I wanted you to know just how important this is to Illinois,” Rose said.

A surprising speaker in favor of the FutureGen plant was Barry Matchett, Co-legislative Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center based in Chicago. “We are in full support of FutureGen,” Matchett said, “and we’re in the business of suing coal-fueled power plants.”

After the hearing, Matchett said that his organization is currently engaged in lawsuits with four power plants for pollution violations, two in Illinois and two in Kentucky, and is supporting a lawsuit in Wisconsin. “FutureGen only makes sense,” Matchett said.

The only negative commentary heard by the DOE panel was from William Looby, representing the AFL-CIO, but not against FutureGen. “We believe there are inconsistencies in the Texas wage data,” Looby said, “and we will be following up with a written commentary.”

For three hours prior to the hearing, key personnel from the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance were available to the public. Those included Thomas Sarkus, the Department of Energy’s FutureGen Project Director, and Michael Mudd, Chief Executive Officer of the FutureGen Alliance.

Sarkus and Mudd share a passion for the future of FutureGen and the benefits it will bring to the world as a whole through technology transfer arrangements with countries such as India and Japan, who are governmental partners in the project.

“I want FutureGen to make it possible that my grandchildren won’t have to hear their President say ‘We are addicted to foreign energy, and that’s why you have to worry about turning on your lights,’” Mudd said, referring to President Bush’s speech declaring the U.S. a nation of oil addicts.