Key deadlines ahead for FutureGen project - WGEM.com: Quincy News, Weather, Sports, and Radio

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Two key deadlines await the long-planned FutureGen clean-coal project before the year ends.

Project planners say the Illinois Commerce Commission is due to decide whether utilities including Ameren and Commonwealth Edison would have to buy power from the project. And the U.S. Department of Energy is expected to decide whether to proceed to the design and engineering phase. The project has $1 billion in federal funding.

FutureGen Alliance CEO Ken Humphreys tells The (Springfield) State Journal-Register (http://bit.ly/RAwpbW ) that the power-purchase decision could give the project a needed revenue stream.

The FutureGen Alliance is a group of coal and power companies planning to refit a coal-powered power plant in Meredosia to remove carbon dioxide from coal and store it underground.

Initial plans to build an eastern Illinois plant fell through.