Company awaits permits for fuel plant

By D.A. Wilkinson

Two of three needed permits have not yet been approved.

SALEM — Environmentalists and officials are weighing in on the proposed coal-to-synthetic fuel plant as the permit process nears its end.

Baard Energy plans to build a $5.5 billion synthetic-fuel plant that would create about 2,000 construction jobs, 200 full-time jobs at the plant and about 750 coal-mining jobs.

A public hearing on the third state permit has been set for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10 at Wellsville High School.

It will be the last state permit needed to start the project.

Mike Settles, a spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said Wednesday the first permit affecting wetlands at the site has been approved.

Columbiana County Commissioner Dan Bing said that after the construction, there would be more wetlands at the site than there are now.

The second permit for waste treatment is still under consideration, Settles said. It is expected to be released in the near future.

The air quality permit, Settles added, is the most complex.

He added, “It’s going to be a huge plant.”

The facility would take Ohio’s high-sulphur coal and turn it into synthetic fuel.

Settles said he had not seen the release from the Sierra Club, America’s oldest environmental organization, but he added he can understand people’s concerns.

The release states that environmentalists and citizens “expressed deep concern that local and state officials have given a free pass to an out-of-state energy company.”

When asked how the Baard plant got a “free pass” when the permitting process is not complete, Sierra Club spokesman Nachy Kanfer said the organization was out to make sure the plant doesn’t get one. He is a representative of the club’s National Coal Campaign in Ohio.

The release said other organizations panned the idea of coal to fuel — which dates to the 1930s — “as a bad deal for America’s security and economy.”

The Air Force, however, has been testing the use of synthetic fuel and plans to use a 50-50 gas-synthetic fuel in all its aircraft by 2012.

The proposed plant would emit carbon dioxide, one of the most abundant gases in the atmosphere. Baard in December received a $984,000 federal grant to study the injection of carbon dioxide into sealed gas wells. Carbon dioxide also helps to bring up any unpumped oil that may be in the area.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson of St. Clairsville, D-6th, helped obtain the grant. Local officials have been taking part in a weekly telephone conference on the project’s progress.

But Kanfer also said that it may take years to perfect the injection process.

Kanfer said environmentalists want fuel for “a clean-energy economy.” He did not propose a particular energy, saying Sierra Club members support different types of power.

Settles said a decision on the third permit may be made in about two months.

wilkinson@vindy.com