Friday, February 08, 2008


NPR's "On Point" - Way Off Base on View of FutureGen IGCC

If you have a few minutes to spare and still have the stomach for more misinformation on FutureGen, you should tune in to hear the Feb. 7 NPR broadcast of "On Point" which focuses on the DOE "Pulling the Plug on FutureGen".

As one in the know commented about it, "it is incredulous to see how those sound bite spinners could cause such devastation for their own good". It is really something to behold if you could take it.

You could find the "On Point" posting at:
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/02/20080207_a_main.asp

Or you could launch the broadcast itself at the following by inserting at NPR on FutureGen.

You might also want to look at the WSJ Energy blog coming out of DC at:
It is amazing how the WSJ energy "expert" totally ignores the fact that the IGCC portion of FutureGen was to be based on available technology. He makes it sound as if making clean gas from coal was still to be proven, and portrays the entire project, including the gasification block, as an R&D experiment in urgent need of Federal support to save the planet.

The other "expert guests" on the broadcast, including MIT's Professor Herzog, aren't much better in the way that they let themselves be used by the NPR reporter to misinform and whip up the public.

Let's hope that some real IGCC projects come along to get a share of the funds that the DOE still intends to put out for the CO2 capture and sequestration part of FutureGen. Maybe it will happen even sooner than the new FutureGen target of 2015.

It should certainly prove to be an interesting summer for DOE watchers, especially with FutureGen now becoming a political football.



Harry Jaeger
Gasification Editor
Gas Turbine World Magazine

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www.GTWBooks.com