Conaway, Craddick expect success when revolutionary coal plant site picked.

The suspense will be excruciating during the week of Dec. 17, when the FutureGen Industrial Alliancewill say which one of four finalists gets the first FutureGen plant -- Mattoon or Tuscola, Ill., Jewett in Southeast Texas or Odessa.

More than the winners' whooping and losers' moans, the announcement will have global resonance with the alliance's international makeup and $1.6-$1.8 billion plant's revolutionary goal to turn coal into electricity without the pollution that has until now been the dark side of coal power.

"The date I have is Dec. 17 and I think it's a pretty hard date," said FutureGen Texas Regional Coordinator Hoxie Smith of Midland on Oct. 25. "The alliance just about knows what the decision is and they're waiting on the U.S. Department of Energy to finish their environmental studies and announce the record of decision.

"I don't think Illinois came close to the incentives we offered."

Congressman Mike Conaway of Midland said Thursday that the record of decision had just been announced and all four sites declared acceptable.

Texas Speaker of the House Tom Craddick, Odessa Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Director Neil McDonald, Smith and Conaway said Odessa's secure underground carbon dioxide storage east of Fort Stockton and CO2 market give it a big advantage.

"It's going to be more profitable in Texas because we sell power for more than they do in Illinois," Smith said.

He said the near zero emissions coal fired hydrogen-electrical plant is unlikely to be shelved like the superconducting super collider near Waxahachie was in 1993 because it has bipartisan support and will protect the environment.

Craddick said the Texas Legislature passed a series of bills for the project, which is being offered $20 million from the state, $250 million from the FutureGen Texas Team, $5 million from Odessa Development Corp., $60 million a year for four years in state business tax credits and $100,000 from the city of Monahans.

Smith said Texas' almost $1 billion package swamped Illinois' less than $90 million.

With CO2 for oil injection wells selling for $1 per thousand cubic feet, the 275 megawat facility 20 miles west of Odessa at Penwell could sell unlimited amounts of the gas after the first five years of storing a million tons a year.

Construction would run from 2009-2012 with 1,100 workers building it and some 200 permanent employees.

"We think we're down to the two sites in Texas because the Illinois sites are not viable," Craddick told Midland Downtown Lions Club members on Oct. 24. "Odessa is the best because of the CO2."

Conaway on Thursday confirmed Smith's report that the announcement will be made in the week of Dec. 17.

"Today, the DOE announced that the final environmental impact study has been issued and all four sites have been found acceptable," the congressman said. "On Friday, Nov. 16, the EIS will be placed in the Federal Register and the 30-day public comment period will start.

Conaway said the Permian Basin's lack of coal, compared to Jewett's lignite mine, is not detrimental because the plant will test coal from all over the world, particularly the black bituminous and sub-bituminous coal of the Midwest and Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana.

"Lignite is more dirt than coal," said Conaway. "We stand a great chance because of the hard work put in by folks in Odessa and the rest of our West Texas team. Penwell is the most environmentally sound site and we have the best location and infrastructure for CO2.

"It will use every kind of coal imaginable and no site has multiple kinds. They would all have to haul it in, so the fact we don't have any is not as big a drawback as you might think on first blush. I don't think we're blindly pulling for the home team. We have good reason to be optimistic."

McDonald said the 600-acre site in an oil and gas well-studded pasture north of Penwell is the biggest of the four and offers proximity to Midland-Odessa and "the highest, best use of CO2 as a commodity."

Referring to the China Huaneng Group's alliance membership, McDonald said, "China will be interested in the performance of their coal in gasification and ship to whichever site is chosen.

"The Center for Energy and Economic Diversification will fill up with a horde of enthusiastic supporters to hear that Odessa has been picked."

FutureGen Texas Team spokesman Chuck McDonald of Austin said Illinois' worst weakness is that "this is a high stakes experiment and they propose to put CO2 into underground formations no one has ever drilled into.

"We have hundreds of core samples from Penwell and Jewett, so we know exactly what kinds of seals are down there."

McDonald, who is not related to Neil, said Jewett's advantages are the Texas Westmoreland Coal Co. Mine and coal fired NRG Energy electrical plant, which would share rail and transmission line costs.

Texas Bureau of Economic Geology Director Scott Tinker announced in Austin in mid-October that his optimism had been increased by the DOE's award of a 10-year, $38 million grant for the University of Texas affiliated bureau to study CO2 storage near Natchez, Miss.

Other FutureGen Industrial Alliance members are Anglo American of London, England, BHP Billiton of Melbourne and Xstrata Coal of Sydney, Australia, American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio, CONSOLE Energy of Pittsburgh, Pa., E.ON U.S. of Louisville, Ky., Foundation Coal of Linthicum Heights, Md., Peabody Energy of St. Louis, Mo., the PPL Corp. of Allentown, Pa., the Southern Co. of Atlanta, Ga., and Rio Tinto Energy of Gillette, Wyo.