Coal-to-liquid plant planned for Pikeville
By Cassondra Kirby-Mullins
Posted on Tue, Jul. 15, 2008
kentucky.com
ckirby@herald-leader.com
PIKEVILLE — With oil prices at historic highs, a county where coal trucks rumble at all hours and miners blast away at black seams is moving ahead with a controversial project to turn its vast coal reserves into barrels of liquid fuel.
Pike County Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford announced Monday that officials have chosen a site for a $4 billion coal-to-liquid plant in Pike County, which sits in the heart of the eastern coalfields.
After a yearlong, $850,000 study by Pikeville-based Summit Engineering, paid for by the Kentucky Department of Energy and the Appalachian Regional Commission, Rutherford said the county plans to develop a facility that would produce 50,000 barrels of liquid coal a day.
The plant would be built at Big Shoal in the city limits of Pikeville, across the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River from the Coal Run community. The site is within a mile of U.S. 23 and CSX railroad tracks.
Rutherford said the county would use federal and state grant money to put the basic infrastructure in place, including water and sewer, and the company chosen to operate the facility would pay for the rest.
County officials have not yet secured funding, but Rutherford said he has received support from Gov. Steve Beshear, as well as several others, including state Rep. Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook.
”It is a proposal we can achieve,“ said Adkins, the House majority leader, who was present during Rutherford's announcement Monday. ”We need to do everything we can to decrease our dependence on foreign oil.“
Rutherford said county officials have already received several proposals from interested companies, but they have not yet reviewed them.
Congress rejected attempts to mandate liquid coal fuels last year. But coal-backing House members introduced legislation in May that would mandate production of liquid coal and provide incentives for its use.
Pike County joins a growing number of communities across the United States considering such facilities. In Kentucky, Whitley and McCracken counties have also discussed the possibility.
Other states working on it
Developers in Alaska, Montana, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Louisiana are working on coal-to-liquids plants, which use a process that heats coal to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and mixes it with water to produce a gas, and then converts the gas into diesel fuel.
The coal industry and its supporters say such efforts could help wean the nation from its reliance on foreign oil for transportation. They insist that the technology would strengthen national security and be cheaper than petroleum.
Roger Ford, director of energy and technology for Pike County, says coal to liquid will be produced at the Pike County facility for about $61 a barrel. The plant will produce 50,000 barrels a day. This week, oil prices rose above $145 a barrel.
But environmental groups are fiercely opposed. They worry that liquid coal could contribute to global warming, citing researchers who say the process produces nearly twice the greenhouse gases that gasoline does, pumping carbon dioxide into the air — both when coal is turned into liquid, and when that liquid is burned in vehicles.
They also fear coal-to-liquid plants would result in more strip mining and mountaintop removal, devastating surrounding environments. If liquid coal were to account for a 10 percent displacement of current oil use, coal mining would have to increase by 43 percent, some researchers have predicted.
Opponents and supporters
”The rest of the country is taking global warming seriously and moving forward to address it,“ said Teri Blanton, a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. ”Twice the pollution is never the solution. This is not taking our country forward.“
But Rutherford and Pike County officials say they are committed to having a plant that is as environmentally conscious as possible. They say they will choose a company that is also environmentally friendly.
”Our goal is to not put anything out in the ozone,“ Rutherford said. ”We know there is no concept in this world right now that does that, but there's a lot of research going on.“
He said part of the Pike County project includes building an energy resource center that would train plant workers and house researchers who want to make the process cleaner.
County officials say they don't have a time line for construction. Once it is started, the plant will take five to six years to complete.
Rutherford said the construction phase is expected to create about 2,000 jobs. Once the plant is functioning, about 750 workers would be needed to operate it. The average wage for plant workers would be $50,000 a year.
Cassondra Kirby-Mullins covers Pike County for the Herald-Leader. Reach her at (606) 487-8785. |
