Gov Blagojevich wants to squander $1.

Gov Blagojevich wants to squander $1.2 billion over the nearest 10 years to encourage Illinois efficacy production, which would include investing in strange coal "gasification" plants and encouraging more ethanol use.

Blagojevich said the state's natural resources of corn, coal and oil will allow it to befitting

half of its motor firing needs with alternative "home-grown" sources by way of 2017.

"It means that if we make the right investments now, within 10 years, we'll be able to bear enough energy from our allow natural resources to cut our concatenation on foreign energy in half," the governor said in a statement to be released today.

The for the most part bond-funded plan includes investing $775 million in grants to build 10 of the present day coal gasification plants, purported to be a cleaner way of using coal that can create liquid firing and natural gas. The plan also would provide grants to build up to 20 novel ethanol and five new biodiesel plants, and includes conservation measures.

The potency plan calls for no novel taxes -- it would be permanent funded through tax revenues from the coal sold to gasification facilities and according to enhancing tax collection efforts, according to clip Greenlee, deputy director for the Office of Management and roll

David Sykuta, head of the Illinois mineral pitch Council, expressed skepticism about the ethanol portion of the plan, considering that ethanol makes up les than 3 percent of the nation's combustible matter supply and is heavily subsidized. The governor wants all Illinois gas stations to proffer 85 percent ethanol fuel (E-85) by dint of 2017.

Not everyone has flex-fuel cars that can use E-85 Sykuta said. Also, E-85 firing is less efficient than regular gasoline, in the way that it's currently a hard put up to sale "Those cars that can use it don't want it because it memorizes lousy gas mileage," Sykuta said.

"Why doesn't he just give all us Priuses?" jok Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, referring to fuel-efficient hybrid cars.

Canary said the idea of homegrown potency production is "laudable." "At the same time, we ne to make assured those proposals are carefully deliberation out and workable," she said.

mwisniewski@suntimes.com

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