New Source Economics

New coal gasification plants on the drawing board could use Illinois' abundant but high-sulfur coal and pump and "sequester" the resultant carbon-dioxide underground into non-porous chambers.

Four of the twelve sites in the running for the FutureGen pilot are located in Illinois. The Tribune:

Gasification plants cost about 20 percent more to build than conventional coal-burning plants. Sequestration would add significantly more expense. As long as fuel prices were relatively cheap, utilities had little economic incentive to try more sophisticated approaches to power generation. Those days now appear to be over.

So the market is working to bring online new technology and sources of energy, which will bring prices down over time. The added benefit would be new jobs downstate and more energy security for the US.