DEP Moving Ahead With Permit for Mingo Coal-to-Liquids Plant

WV Congressman Nick Rahall has said that he wants his district to supply jet fuel made from liquefied coal to the Air Force. Rahalls Congressional District already produces more coal than any other district. Many of his southern WV constituents have long suffered the externalities of "cheap" coal poisoned water and poisoned politics, blown up mountains and buried valleys where neighborhoods used to be.

The US military recently announced that it no longer wants to use fuel produced from coal. The Natural Resources Defense Council says that "the decision was a long time in the making as the technologys deep inherent flaws came under increasing scrutiny. Environmentally, these fuels are disastrous, emitting nearly double the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions as conventional fuels. Thus, commercializing liquid coal would stymie our efforts to mitigate global warming Global warming has drawn the attention of military planners, veterans and security experts because of its profound impacts on national security."

Nevertheless, in October the WV Department of Environmental Protection issued a draft air pollution permit for what would be the first coal-to-liquids plant in the country, planned by TransGas for Mingo County. It would be conveniently located where West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia come together the better to politically divide people who would be breathing the polluted air.

The plant would burn 3 million tons of coal per year to produce 6.5 billion barrels of gasoline annually. DEP says it would be a minor air pollution source, so a more thorough review before granting the air permit is not necessary.

Years ago when OVEC was fighting seriously illegal air pollution from the Ashland Oil refinery, the fact that it was located where West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio come together made it a bureaucratic horror to fight three states, three US EPA regions. It took well over a decade of organizing, public pressure and citizen lawsuits to get the US Justice Department and the US EPA to force the improvements needed there to stop the continual air violations that were making people sick. (The former Ashland refinery in Catlettsburg, KY, is now owned by Marathon.)

The site for the proposed coal-to-liquids plant is on the Right Fork of Bens Creek Road near Wharncliffe and Gilbert, close to where the new Mingo County High School is planned to be built. The coal-to-liquids plant would be located on a currently partially "reclaimed" portion of a massive mountaintop removal operation, where several mountains are still in the process of being blown up.

Im not an engineer, but I just dont understand how a former mountaintop removal site can be guaranteed to be stable enough for a huge industrial complex, after all of the massive blasting required to level the mountains. Have you heard of "Sink Sink," the federal prison built on former mountaintop removal land in Kentucky?

Of course we will be told that this time it will be different, that the site is assured to be stable, because the coal companies are using improved engineering techniques.

I cant help wondering if a former experience could be relevant here. About eight years ago, OVEC and Coal River Mountain Watch were challenging the permit to expand the Brushy Fork coal sludge impoundment, the biggest in the state. The legal hearing began with coal industry officials describing in graphic detail all of the advanced engineering procedures and techniques that were using to assure the impoundment dam was stable. Then our side brought to the stand some of the men who actually built the impoundment dam. They didnt even know of all those complicated engineering requirements that their bosses said they so carefully followed.

The DEP granted the expansion permit anyway, and now Massey is blasting right next to the Brushy Fork impoundment dam in their quest for more "cheap" coal. And were told not to worry because its all perfectly safe. Just like were supposed to believe that coal-to-liquids is safe and environmentally friendly.

The US House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would cut carbon dioxide emissions. How likely is it that investors will want to put their money into a very expensive new project that would result in increased carbon emissions from gasoline? Would you be confident enough to put some of your own money into building this plant?

Im betting that if this plant is built, well be putting our taxpayer dollars into it to make up for a lack of enough funding from private investors. And our money would once again be spent to justify more blown up mountains, more people displaced from their ancestral homes, more of the same for southern West Virginia.