There was an initiative to build a "clean" coal burning plant by a company called FutureGen. There was a bidding process, and two states were selected, apparently, as finalists to get the plant (and significant federal money for development). Those two states were Texas (which happens to be President Bush's home state) and Illinois.

Illinois won. I don't really know how much coal Texas has, but IIRC, on our visit to the Museum of Science and Industry coal mine exhibit, I don't recall Texas having significant coal deposits. I could be completely wrong on that. Maybe they do have significant coal deposits.

But I know that Illinois has tons of coal. Strip mining of coal have created a series of "lakes" in communities near where I live, communities like Wilmington, Braidwood, and Coal City.

This plant was supposed to go near a downstate town called Mattoon, Illinois. It was a big coup for that area, and for the state in general. We don't get a lot of federal dollars coming back to our state in relation to what we pay to the government in taxes. I don't know what the numbers say right now, but a few years back we were one of the lowest states in the nation as far as differential between what is paid in federal taxes, and what is returned to the state in federal dollars. We were one of the few states that sent more than we got back.

The Department of Energy cited ballooning costs as the reason the plug was pulled on this project, and the Bush administration instead chose to spread funding across multiple facilities nationwide.

An Illinois representative to Congress (from the Mattoon area, I believe) commented in yesterday's Trib that the government seemed to be pretty high on the project, even as costs ballooned, when DOE officials thought it was likely going to Texas. Did I mention that Texas is the President's home state?

Anyone else think this STINKS of politics? If it wasn't between Texas and Illinois, I'd maybe think there was some truth to their reluctance to fund this thing. AS it is now, I think they're just taking their ball and going home because it isn't where the President wanted the money to go.