Durbin, Johnson Ask for Apology From Department of Energy

February 5, 2008 -- [Washington, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representatives Tim Johnson (R-IL) today sent the following letter to the Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman asking for an apology for recent disparaging remarks made by Under Secretary of Energy C.H. “Bud” Albright regarding the citizens of Central Illinois and the FutureGen project.

Text of the letter appears below:

February 5, 2008

The Honorable Samuel Bodman
Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Dear Mr. Secretary:

We are writing to express our concern and dismay over recent disparaging remarks made by Under Secretary of Energy C.H. “Bud” Albright regarding the citizens of Central Illinois and the FutureGen project.

According to a number of confirmed accounts, during a recent phone conference with stakeholders in the FutureGen project, Mr. Albright asserted that the U.S. Department of Energy was not interested in “building Disneyland in some swamp in Illinois.” Mr. Albright’s statement is insulting to the people of Mattoon and Central Illinois and all of those who worked so diligently on the FutureGen project.

For five years, the Department of Energy urged communities in our state and others to pursue, at great expense and sacrifice, this critically important energy project. When the City of Mattoon was chosen over other locations in Texas, criticism of this project and its location began to leak out of your Department.

While Mr. Albright’s comments are the most recent iteration of a theme that is becoming all too common at your agency, the insulting tone and tenor are uncalled for. The nature of these remarks should cause you to seriously reconsider whether or not this man can objectively serve in a post as sensitive as Under Secretary of Energy.

The people of Central Illinois deserve better treatment than they have received at the hands of Mr. Albright. We would hope that he would have the decency to publicly apologize to the people of Mattoon and Central Illinois for his insulting remarks.

Mr. Secretary, when you announced last week that the Department of Energy was restructuring the FutureGen project, that decision was met with bipartisan, bicameral opposition. Many of us feel misled; we have lost a great deal of faith in your Department, and incidents such as the one described in this letter do little to allay our fears. We hope we can put the rancor, pettiness and bitterness aside and come together to get the FutureGen project back on track in Mattoon so that our state and our nation can realize the benefits of near-zero emission coal technology.

All of us in the Illinois Congressional delegation, the State of Illinois, and the FutureGen Alliance stand ready to move this important project forward. It would be unfortunate to wait for the next Administration to complete the project that the President announced and promoted for more than five years.

Sincerely,
Dick Durbin
United States Senate

Tim Johnson
Member of Congress

P.S. Since your family is originally from Bement, Illinois about 40 miles from Mattoon, you are certainly aware that there are no “swamps” in Central Illinois – only a lot of good people who worked hard to play by the rules you have now abandoned.

Source: Senator Dick Durbin

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