The FutureGen Alliance remains confident that an electricity purchase agreement can be made with the State of Illinois.

The proposed deal could result in savings for Illinois taxpayers.

Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesperson for the Alliance, said they hoped the Illinois General Assembly would have approved a deal that would allow the state to purchase its electricity solely from FutureGen by the end of its veto session, which concluded in October.

Instead, the bill made it out of the Senate Energy Committee. Pacheco said the development makes the coming legislative session, which begins in January, critical for the Alliance.

“It is a win-win situation,” Pacheco said.

He said the deal would allow the state to buy homegrown electricity made from clean coal technology that reduces greenhouse gas pollution.

The agreement would also encourage job creation in the state, Pacheco said.

He said the U.S. Department of Energy stipulated in its cooperative agreement with the Alliance that they needed to show the future Mattoon site would be able to market its electricity.

The $17.3 million agreement, which was signed Sept. 1, also allows the alliance and the Energy Department to evaluate the plant’s original design and find ways to decrease costs.

Pacheco said the deal with the state could lead to cost savings for Illinois and its taxpayers. The deal includes a price cap that limits the cost of FutureGen’s electricity sold to the state, he said.

“This can be done in an affordable and fair way for the State of Illinois,” Pacheco said.

He said the deal is similar to the one the General Assembly approved for the Tenaska coal-fired energy plant in Taylorville, which requires utility companies to buy electricity from Tenaska.

State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said the Alliance’s not-for-profit status would allow the state to purchase electricity cheaper from the FutureGen plant because not-for-profits are exempt from various taxes.

He said cost containment measures, such as the cap, ensures that taxpayers are protected even if the energy market fluctuates in the future.

“The whole concept here . is to come up with an agreement that is no worse for the taxpayers or far better,” Rose said. “That is the goal here.”

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., will visit Mattoon at 12:45 p.m. today to receive an update on the FutureGen project from members of Coles Together, the county’s economic development agency.

Durbin is expected to make a brief speech after the meeting with Coles Together.

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.