The coal gasification plant that was proposed for Wiscasset, Maine, appears to me to be exactly what is being proposed in your area. Here's a link to the story: Click here for article!
My understanding is the carbon dioxide gas has to be purified before trying to pump it hundreds of feet underground into the granite bedrock (which in Maine is typically fractured bedrock!). The "scrubbing" process is what would require huge volumes of fresh water which threatened to pollute the river and bay. In addition, Maine is not a coal-mining state. The plan was to keep the plant supplied by towing hundreds of coal barges up the coast and then up the long winding tidal river. The plan's backers also asked for an exemption to the town building codes and were turned down in a subsequent referendum. The referendum was not binding but the plan appears to be dead.