DOE Suspends $1 Billion in FutureGen Funds, Killing Carbon Capture Demonstration Project

The Energy Department has suspended funding for FutureGen 2.0, all but ensuring that the carbon capture and sequestration project in Illinois won’t be built.

The department halted plans to provide $1 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to the FutureGen Alliance—a nonprofit organization made up of coal mining and electric power companies that include Alpha Natural Resources Inc., Anglo American SA, Joy Global Inc. and Peabody Energy Corp.—after it determined the project wouldn’t be able to meet a Recovery Act requirement that the money be committed by July 1 and spent by Sept. 30.

“Frankly, the project has ...