CHEYENNE - Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Wednesday said it's absurd and disingenuous for the federal government to pull the plug on FutureGen, the proposed Illinois power plant that had been touted as a way to research how to generate electricity from coal without any air emissions.

Wyoming had competed with several other states to try to land the proposed $1.8 billion FutureGen plant. Wyoming lost out of the competition in 2006 after organizers of the joint public-private FutureGen project said underground storage of carbon might threaten groundwater at the state's suggested site in Campbell County.

Freudenthal and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said in 2006 that they suspected politics was the real reason that Wyoming was passed over. They pointed out that the two finalist states, Illinois and Texas, were the home states of then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and of President Bush.

In announcing cancellation of the entire FutureGen project on Wednesday, officials with the U.S. Department of Energy said the agency now prefers to spend money on a number of smaller carbon-capture projects around the country. Carbon capture involves pumping carbon dioxide from smokestacks underground so it can't contribute to global warming.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said his department plans to solicit industry applications for participation in the new carbon-capture projects.

Enzi on Wednesday said the Department of Energy should consider directing some of the funding to projects in Wyoming.

"We've heard, 'If you build it they will come.' Well, when it comes to energy in Wyoming it's already here, now we just need to build it," Enzi said.

Wyoming is the nation's leading coal producing state.

Freudenthal on Wednesday said he finds it interesting that the Energy Department now says it intends to fund smaller projects. He said the state is ready to adapt to whatever happens.

Meanwhile, Freudenthal has been pushing for Wyoming to invest in its own clean-coal research. Freudenthal last week told state lawmakers that he wants Wyoming to spend the bulk of the money it stands to receive this year from the federal abandoned mine lands program on research into clean coal technology.

Freudenthal on Wednesday noted that President Bush mentioned the importance of clean-coal technology in his State of the Union address this week. And Freudenthal said the federal government has approached other countries to join with the United States in creating a fund for clean coal technology.

"And then, the project that has been talked about as kind of the flagship technology for many years, had lots of states put in effort to apply for it, it finally gets down to the point where people are serious about it, and all of a sudden, the administration does a complete about-face," Freudenthal said.

"To me, it's not only astonishing, it's disingenuous. It's kind of like they invited all of us to go to the prom, picked their date, and then canceled the dance."