ComEd and the Illinois Competitive Energy Association plan to go to the Illinois Appellate Court. They will challenge the surcharge the Illinois Commerce Commission approved in December.

CEA president Kevin Wright says the commission lacks the authority to make electricity customers help finance the federally backed project.

Commerce Commission spokeswoman Beth Bosch says the agency knows about the planned appeals but hasn’t seen arguments yet.

Ameren spokeswoman Stacey Shangraw says Ameren is not a party to the challenge. She says Ameren is in ongoing FutureGen contract negotiations along with ComEd.

The ICC in December ruled that both electric companies had to buy energy generated from FutureGen for the next two decades. A new round of hearings on a “sourcing agreement,” which will help determine the cost of power produced at the site, have not yet been scheduled.

The FutureGen project involves retrofitting the former Ameren coal plant in Meredosia to include “clean coal” technology that would liquefy carbon dioxide, which would travel through a pipeline to an underground storage site on Route 123 near Beilschmidt Road.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.