Not sure how we missed this bit of news from earlier in the week -- maybe we should stop spending two hours a night watching debates -- but the Energy Department has pulled the plug on FutureGen.

Yes, less than after 48 hours after the State of the Union speech in which President Bush urged Congress to "fund new technologies that can generate coal power while capturing carbon emissions," the administration withdrew its support for the $1.8 billion public-private partnership aimed at generating coal power while capturing carbon emissions.

Endorsed by Bush in his 2003 State of the Union speech and supported by the administration for more than five years, FutureGen aimed to design, build, and operate the world's first coal-powered, near-zero emissions power plant. It's been less than two months since the FutureGen Alliance -- made up of 13 coal and power companies -- chose Mattoon, Illinois as the site for the project.

DOE chief Sam Bodman said this week that the department would instead support several smaller carbon-capture projects throughout the country. As the Chicago Tribune reported, under the new plan, DOE "would fund the capture and storage of carbon emissions, while utilities cover the cost of power generation."

As one might expect, the decision to scrap FutureGen has not gone over well in Illinois. State lawmakers and Alliance officials said this week they hope to move the project forward, but given that DOE had planned to pay for 74 percent of the project, FutureGen would now appear to be a relic of the past.