Washington: U.S. government cancels clean-coal experiment.

• Position: KIOSQUE: Global highlights and local sidelights culled from the media - Brief article

The Bush administration dropped its support for a $1.8 billion coal-gasification plant that was supposed to herald an era of emissions-free electricity. After four years of study, a total of $50 million spent, the abandonment of the project in January 2008 was a major policy reversal. The department of energy cited big cost overruns--and more in the offing--as its reason for canceling government plans to invest in the new technology.

The public-private project, FutureGen Industrial Alliance Inc., was announced in 2005 with great fanfare as part of the Bush administration's plan to fight global warming with technological innovation rather than with ceilings on carbon. The U.S. government (alongside private partners, including some from Germany and Britain) planned a pilot facility capable of turning coal into hydrogen-rich synthetic gas for generating electricity.

Currently, the U.S. gets more than half its electricity...