For Release: Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Contact: David Gillies: 202-225-5661

COSTELLO: “WE WERE RIGHT, BUSH DECISION ON FUTUREGEN WAS WRONG”

Washington - U.S. Congressman Jerry Costello (D-IL), who was outraged when the Bush Administration pulled the plug on the FutureGen project in December 2007 after years of planning and spending millions of dollars, said a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today confirms that the Bush administration’s decision was not based on cost. Costello had said at the time that the decision was based on politics, not a sound review of the facts.

The House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, part of the Science and Technology Committee, today held a hearing to examine the conclusions of the GAO investigation and a separate Committee investigation into the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) justifications for restructuring FutureGen. The reports make clear that DOE’s claims of exorbitant cost overruns are not supported, and that the refocused program does not come close to the expected results of the original FutureGen concept.

“These reports make clear the decision by President Bush and Secretary Bodman was not supported by the facts,” said Costello, the second ranking Democrat on the Committee. “The result is we lost at least a year and a half and perhaps more time to develop carbon capture and sequestration technologies. President Bush took what could have been a tremendous bipartisan achievement with real impact on global climate change and made it yet another poor decision.”

The Science and Technology Committee report included an exhaustive review of DOE e-mail communications regarding FutureGen, and shows clearly that then-Secretary Bodman wanted to kill the project no matter what. As one DOE staffer said it:

“[E]veryone is conveniently forgetting that we’re here b/c [because] S-1 [Secretary Bodman] wants to kill FG as its [sic] currently contemplated with or without a Plan B.”

“Given the fact that over half of U.S. electricity is produced from coal, and that China and India are accelerating coal plants in their own countries, it is essential that we find a way to burn coal as cleanly as possible,” said Costello. “We have a blueprint for how to get there, and because of the determined work by this Committee and the GAO, we can move beyond this tragic decision by the Bush administration with the record set straight and get back to work. I look forward to working with Secretary Chu on FutureGen.”

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