January 30, 2008

Poshard reacts to FutureGen decision

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard today (Jan. 30) issued the following statement after learning of U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman's decision to restructure the FutureGen program:

"Southern Illinois University played a major role in the Illinois effort to attract FutureGen. We are of course extremely disappointed with today's decision by Secretary Bodman. If this nation is to achieve its energy and environmental objectives, bureaucratic hesitancy must give way to innovative public-private strategies such as FutureGen. The decision to site the FutureGen plant in Mattoon was made by some of the largest energy corporations in America, not government. It would be my hope, of course, that the Department of Energy would honor that decision."