A NEW STUDY by Stanford University indicates advances in agriculture have slowed greenhouse gas emissions because more can be grown on fewer acres. .....................4
ABOUT 100 LEADERS with the Vision for Illinois Agriculture last week at a meeting in Bloomington received a sobering outlook on the state’s fiscal situation. ..............3
FUTURES PRICES late last week briefly topped $8 per bushel for wheat and reached $10.70 for soybeans and $4.50 for corn. The drought in Russia had an impact. ...7
Monday, August 9, 2010
Two sections Volume 38, No. 32
DOE greenlights retooled ‘Futuregen 2.0’
Durbin sees new life for state’s coal energy BY MARTIN ROSS FarmWeek
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After years of planning and delays, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin last week announced approval of a retooled, lower-cost “FutureGen 2.0” clean-coal project with touted economic and environmental benefits well beyond an originally slated Coles County project. After meeting with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Springfield Democrat unveiled a plan that substitutes redesign of Ameren’s idled Meredosia power plant for a previously proposed new Mattoon generating plant and a projected 175mile pipeline to transport greenhouse gases from Meredosia in Morgan County and possibly other facilities to Mattoon in Coles County. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and other emissions transported through the pipeline would be injected deep into an underground sandstone formation in Coles County for secure, longterm “sequestration,” said Durbin. The Meredosia plant will be retrofitted with cutting edge “oxy-combustion” technology
using superheated oxygen to burn coal with reduced emissions, he said. Remaining CO2 would be piped through Decatur where Sen. Dick Durbin Archer Daniels Midland Co. has explored CO2 sequestration and could use the pipeline. Durbin estimates more than 50 Illinois power plants and 200-plus Midwest plants are “within reach” of the project, and foresees refineries, factories, and others someday tapping into an expanded pipeline to store their emissions. FutureGen 2.0, which carries a reduced roughly $1.2 billion price tag, also will include a Mattoon-area training center which would educate workers in power plant retrofitting and
pipeline development. According to Durbin, the project, slated to break ground in 2011, should create 1,000plus construction jobs and more than the 150 permanent jobs originally projected under Mattoon-specific plans. Citing the possibility of new federal greenhouse regulations, he argued emissions controls “will be a challenge for electric power plants across the United States.” Under Durbin-supported climate proposals by Sens. Robert Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), utilities are expected to be the first to need to reduce CO2 emissions. “This is an approach which allows many of these electric generating plants to capture CO2 and other harmful pollutants and sink them underground, dramatically reducing their pollution,” Durbin told FarmWeek.
“I think that will be a viable concept which needs to be explored, and Illinois is going to be at the forefront of developing that concept.” Neither the industry FutureGen Alliance consortium nor Coles Together — the regional development group that had lobbied Mattoon siting for FutureGen — initially offered comment on the new plan, though Durbin said alliance members seemed pleased by DOE’s announcement. However, Rep. Tim Johnson, an Urbana Republican who represents Mattoon, called the revised proposal “a betrayal of Coles County and a betrayal of the people of Illinois.” Johnson called on the president to support the original plan “to build a state-of-the-art, clean-coal generation plant that we have been working toward for the last seven years.”
Under pared-back plans, $1.1 billion in federal stimulus funds set aside last year, along with a now-reduced private sector investment coordinated by the FutureGen Alliance, should cover FutureGen 2.0 startup, Durbin said. The training facility and CO2 collection center will occupy the original Mattoon FutureGen site. Preliminary plans envision using existing easements for pipeline construction, according to Durbin, to minimize local “controversy.” Durbin said “nothing is going to happen soon” with Senate climate proposals. Majority Leader Harry Reid (DNev.) instead is pushing a narrow energy package focusing largely on oil industry reform and energy conservation — in Durbin’s view, concepts “more politically realistic for us to consider this year.”
July very wet, very dry
Weather, crop conditions variable around state BY DANIEL GRANT FarmWeek
Crop farmers this year are in the same boat as those in the real estate business: Their success is dependent on “location, location, location.” Crop progress and conditions are all over the board due in large part to a weather pattern that shifted from generally very wet in June to hit-or-miss in July. Locations in Northern and Western Illinois last month received as much as 12-plus inches of rain, which created flash-flooding events, while areas in Eastern Illinois and parts of Southern Illinois in particular were much drier. “The U.S. drought monitor categorized Southern Illinois as ‘abnormally dry’ based on dry conditions in both June and July,” said Jim Angel, state climatologist with the Illinois State Water Survey. The portion of topsoil moisture rated short or very short in the state last week was 71 percent in the southeast, 49 percent in the east, and 39 percent in the southwest, the National Agricultural Sta-
tistics Service Illinois field office reported. Hot temperatures last week also took a toll on some crops and livestock. “Corn is burning, and good-looking
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soybeans will not fill pods at this rate,” said Mark Kerber, a FarmWeek Cropwatcher from Livingston County. Meanwhile, the portion of topsoil moisture rated surplus or adequate last week was 99 percent in the west/southwest, 95 percent in the northeast and northwest, 94 percent in the east/southeast, and 92 percent in the west. Overall, rainfall in Illinois last month averaged 5.6 inches, 1.8 inches above normal, while the average temperature was 77.7 degrees, 1.9 degrees above normal. In Northern Illinois, many roads were
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reopened last week and most crops survived torrential downpours and flooding that hit the area late last month, according to Ryan Keltner, a farmer from Pearl City and president of the Stephenson County Farm Bureau. “Beans took it worse,” he said. “There are areas where beans and corn are brown, but in other areas, where the water came off quickly, (crops) are still green.” Nick Tranel, a farmer from East Dubuque and president of the Jo Daviess County Farm Bureau, believes there still is a good crop in his area despite the recent flooding. “Everything is ahead of last year by a long shot,” Tranel said of corn and bean development in his area. “But hay harvest is slow. There will be lots of quantity, but the quality will be down.” The second cutting of alfalfa in the state last week was 92 percent complete, 4 percent behind average, while the third cutting was 27 percent complete, 6 percent behind average.
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