BergerWorld: 2nd Quarter 2007

The Berger Group is part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) team developing the $1 billion FutureGen Initiative. FutureGen is an innovative effort to design, construct and operate the world's first near-zero emissions coal-fired power plant, a 275-megawatt prototype facility using advanced coal gasification technology and permanent geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The planning, design, construction and initial operation of the facility will be performed by the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a non-profit consortium composed of some of the largest coal producers and users in the world.

Ultimately, the FutureGen Power Plant will produce hydrogen and electric power, and is expected to be the cleanest fossil-fuel-based power system in the world. The product stream will consist mostly of hydrogen, steam and CO2, a greenhouse gas that is contributing to global warming. Following the separation of these gaseous components, the hydrogen will be available to generate electricity in a gas turbine and/or fuel cell, be used as a feedstock for chemical plants or petroleum refineries or utilized as a transportation fuel. Rather than emitting the CO2 byproduct into the atmosphere, as is done at conventional power plants, the FutureGen facility will sequester one to two million metric tons of CO2 each year via capture and geologic storage. The CO2 will be permanently stored in underground geologic formations. The FutureGen facility could potentially become the prototype for future coal-fueled power plants that would make use of the world's abundant coal resources without adding CO2 to the atmosphere or contributing to global warming.

Berger is currently supporting the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance process, including preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS addresses four potential sites for the proposed facility - two in Illinois and two in Texas - that were selected based on a nationwide evaluation of states interested in hosting the facility and possessing sites with minimal adverse environmental impact potential and subsurface geological features suitable for the permanent sequestration of CO2. The Team's NEPA compliance activities involve complex reviews of the potential sites, focusing on air quality, socioeconomics, land use, aesthetics, noise, light, traffic and transportation, wetland mitigation, biological resources, and Native American and archaeological resources, as well as support for the public scoping process. Berger is also working closely with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance and other environmental scientists and nationally recognized experts in the fields of geologic sequestration and risk assessment to determine the potential environmental impacts of constructing and operating the proposed FutureGen facility at any of the candidate sites.