MATTOON — Mattoon is the new home for FutureGen.

The city of nearly 18,000 beat out Tuscola and two cities in Texas, Odessa and Jewett, for the world’s first zero-emissions fossil fuel plant.

A huge roar came at 9:14 a.m. from the standing-room only crowd at the Time Theatre in downtown Mattoon when the Chief Executive Officer of FutureGen Alliance Michael Mudd made the announcement via webcast from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

By 9:35, the marquee sign at the Time Theatre was changed from “FutureGen Announcement here” to “FutureGen We Got It”.

The new plant, to be located in the northwest part of Mattoon at the intersection of Dole Road and Illinois Route 121, will cost an estimated $1.5 billion to build and 10 years to complete.

The new plant is expected to make available 1,300 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs once completed.

Eastern President Bill Perry was at the Time Theatre, and said the university looks forward to helping FutureGen in any way possible.

“We believe there will be opportunities downstream for our faculty to assist in terms of some of the scientific, technical and other kinds of impact of the project,” he said. “We believe it will offer up opportunities for our students in terms of internships and other kinds of experience that will be helpful to them.”

Angela Griffin, president of Coles Together, the group instrumental in bringing the plant to the area, brought two speeches with her to the theatre.

But she tore up the speech she prepared if Mattoon was not chosen to be the home of FutureGen and said FutureGen “changes our landscape forever.”

“We dreamed the dream and now our dream for Coles County means change for our nation,” she said.

Charleston Mayor John Inyart, who said Charleston and Mattoon worked together to come up with the required water needed for the project, said the full effects of FutureGen on Charleston’s econonmy won’t be felt for some time.

“I think there will be just project after project that will follow with FutureGen and I think the possibilities are endless,” he said. “(But), it’s the best news we’ve heard around here in decades.”