Environmental club opposes coal plant

By D.A. Wilkinson

SALEM — A proposed coal-to-liquid fuel plant here is not directly affected by a Thursday ruling issued by the appeals board for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

That’s according to Mike Settles, a spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for this area.

But the Sierra Club, the environmental group that brought the complaint that prompted the EPA ruling, says the ruling will affect the local plant, proposed by Baard Energy.

The statements came as the state EPA is on the brink of issuing an air permit for the proposed $5.5 billion Baard Energy plant that would turn coal into liquid fuel. Settles said a decision is expected to be made within the next two weeks.

The air permit would be the final permit needed to begin construction that would be a boost to the local economy. Permits regulating the plant’s effects on water and wetlands have already been approved.

In a statement, the Sierra Club said it went before the EPA Appeals Board in May of this year to request that the air permit for Deseret Power Electric Cooperative’s proposed waste coal-fired power plant in Utah be overturned because it failed to require any controls on carbon dioxide pollution.

The Sierra Club’s statement said the decision means that all new and proposed coal plants nationwide must go back and address their carbon dioxide emissions.

Settles said the ruling affected only the one case at the federal level, not any Ohio projects.

Nachy Kanfer of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign in Ohio, said, however: “The implications of this ruling for Ohio are huge. This federal ruling underscores the necessity to invest in green jobs in Ohio, rather than building more coal plants that create air pollution and increase global warming.”

The Baard plant would not burn coal for power but to turn it into liquid fuel. The process has been used for decades in countries that have no oil.

The permitting process for the Baard project has taken longer than expected.

Settles said that the proposed air quality permit will reflect some changes based on comments from environmentalists at a public hearing earlier this year.

wilkinson@vindy.com