Mattoon is a city in Coles County in Central Illinois. The population was 18,291 as of the 2000 census. It is a principal city of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area and the future home of the proposed FutureGen project.
Traditionally a stronghold of manufacturing, Mattoon has been hurt by the loss of some major plants over the last couple of decades.
On December 18, 2007, Mattoon was chosen to be the official site of the U.S. Department of Energy's FutureGen zero emission power plant after an intense competition with several other sites, particularly in Illinois (including nearby Effingham) and Texas. The project will build a near zero-emissions coal-fueled power plant that intends to produce hydrogen and electricity while using carbon capture and storage.
In 2009, the America’s Power Factuality Tour stopped at Mattoon, IL to report on its role in generating electricity in the United States and wrote on its blog that "coal-based electricity facilities have made great strides in reducing nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants from ever being emitted into the air. In fact, when it comes to all regulated pollutants, coal plants are 77 percent cleaner in terms of emissions currently regulated under existing Clean Air Act programs per unit of energy produced. But what about carbon dioxide and other emissions? One answer (there are many!) is FutureGen, a public-private partnership to build the world's first near-zero emissions coal-based power plant. Mattoon is the best site in the entire country to build the plant, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, due to the surrounding geology."
After the opening of the Lender's Bagels factory in 1986, Mattoon declared itself the "Bagel Capital of the World." Mattoon is also home to the world's largest bagel and an annual summer event called "Lenders Bagelfest."
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