The FutureGen Alliance has announced Caterpillar as the 11th company to be the added to the growing list of supporters for the energy plant.

“It’s yet another signal that this is a valid project developing cutting-edge technology that today’s industry leaders believe will make a difference in our energy security in the future,” said president of Coles Together Angela Griffin.

Coles Together has been one of the leading grassroots efforts attempting to gain support for the new energy plant, which might be brought to Mattoon.

“We are the functioning and support role,” Griffin said. “At this stage it is just supporting the effort of the alliance and the effort at the Department of Energy to get us to the point where those groups can sign the agreement that will move the project forward.”

The alliance is used to share in the cost of developing this type of technology, because the technology will ultimately be beneficial to each of the alliance companies, Griffin said.

“By becoming a member of the alliance, it is a way to share in the cost of developing and commercializing the technology so that no one industry or no one company is having to bear the cost itself,” Griffin said.

Caterpillar is one of the 30 companies whose stock is tracked in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It is a Fortune 500 company, has more than $30 billion in assets and is first in its industry of construction and mining equipment.

“Clean coal plays a critical role in our country’s competitive energy supply, energy security and environmental protection,” said Caterpillar vice chairman Doug Oberhelman. “The FutureGen project will demonstrate carbon capture and sequestration technologies that are absolutely essential if the world is ever going to realize stabilization rates of, and eventual reductions, in greenhouse gas emissions.”

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has been in support of the project since it was launched and has been deeply intertwined with discussion about the topic, as the bill for FutureGen will soon be addressed in Congress.

“In just a little over a week, the FutureGen Alliance has added another strong partner with a deep connection to Illinois,” Durbin said. “Caterpillar will bring a great deal to the table as the FutureGen Alliance and the Department of Energy continue in the final stages of negotiations.”

Oberhelman is interested in the project because of the benefits that will later be seen with the coal and mining industries, which Caterpillar sells equipment to.

“The U.S. economy is dependent on reliable and affordable access to energy,” Oberhelman said. “FutureGen paves the way for continued use of coal – one of America’s most abundant fuel supplies.”

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942 or kzyskowski@eiu.edu.