Johnson, Shimkus Respond to DOE Errors

Washington, DC - U.S. Reps. Timothy V. Johnson and John Shimkus released the following statements today upon the issuance of findings of the General Accounting Office study showing that the Department of Energy grossly over-inflated cost estimates for FutureGen.

The GAO report was issued at a meeting of the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

The GAO auditors found that the DOE erred in overestimating the cost of FutureGen by $500 million, an error that was used to justify scrapping the project that had been slated for Mattoon. In summary, the report "recommends that DOE re-examine its restructuring decision, based on the comparative costs, benefits, and risks of the original and restructured programs, as well as other incremental options for modifying the original program."

In response, Rep. Johnson said: “We knew that former Secretary Bodman’s department was incompetent, but we at least thought they could do basic math. This just further reinforces our position that Mattoon was the best choice all along, from an environmental, geological and financial point of view. I hope this provides all the more momentum to get this project moving again and I would encourage Secretary Chu to now do the right thing and release the Record of Decision so that the region and the nation can move forward with this promising technology.”

Rep. Shimkus added: "The GAO report clearly shows that the DOE decisions were made to reflect the former Secretary's position, not on science and not on actual costs involved.  I hope this report will spur Secretary Chu to clean-up this mess and move forward with FutureGen in Mattoon."