Caterpillar joins backers of FutureGen

Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment, plans to join a coalition of companies planning to build an experimental clean-coal power plant known as FutureGen, key politicians announced Monday.

Gov. Pat Quinn and Sen. Dick Durbin said the addition of Caterpillar comes on the heels of a decision by Chicago-based Exelon Corp. — one of the nation's biggest power generators — to join the FutureGen Alliance seeking to build the 275-megawatt plant near Mattoon in eastern Illinois.

Quinn and Durbin, in a joint statement, said Caterpillar's involvement "signals critical support" and perhaps growing corporate momentum for the project, which would use coal while removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and storing it underground — a process known as sequestration.

"Clean coal plays a critical role in our energy supply, energy security and environmental protection," Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar's vice chairman, said in a statement. "The FutureGen project will demonstrate carbon capture and sequestration technologies that are absolutely essential for the world to realize reductions in (greenhouse gas) emissions."

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