May 13--TXU Corp. and Texas Energy Future Holdings recently announced a $1 million commitment to support the state's bid for the FutureGen power plant.

Leon County and Odessa are among four sites under consideration for the plant. The other two are in Illinois. The FutureGen Alliance is a non-profit consortium of companies supporting FutureGen, the U.S. Department of Energy project intended to create the world's first near-zero-emissions fossil-fuel power plant. The donation will be used by the state to purchase rights to inject carbon dioxide near the proposed Jewett FutureGen site in Leon County, officials said. The plant will convert coal into hydrogen-rich gas to generate electricity. The process is cleaner than burning coal because carbon dioxide, which has been linked by scientists to global warming, will be trapped and injected into the ground as a compres ed fluid, officials said.

"This donation helps improve the chances that the FutureGen project will come to Texas," said Tom Baker, vice chairman of TXU Corp. "As an industry leader in clean energy technologies, we are excited to participate in this important project to develop n w generation technologies."