Official: Situation looking positive for Baard facility

By D.a. Wilkinson

WELLSVILLE — There’s one bright spot in the dismal local economy.

Tracy Drake, chief executive officer for the Columbiana County Port Authority, said Monday that the purchase of land for a coal-to-fuel plant could be completed by May.

Preliminary site work could begin shortly thereafter.

“I would not be surprised to see it in June,” Drake said.

That would keep the project on track for plant construction starting in 2010.

Baard Energy of Vancouver, Wash., plans to build the facility near the Ohio River at an estimated cost of $6 billion. The facility would turn coal into liquid fuel that has been tested by America’s military forces. The basic process has been used in other countries for years to make gasoline.

The local project is proceeding as the county’s unemployment rate hit 12.8 percent.

The preliminary work would include removing vegetation and roots and leveling a hill that would be the site of the Baard facility.

“It’s on time, and I don’t see that changing,” Drake said of the plan.

The Baard project is expected to require about 600 acres at the site off state Route 7.

Drake submitted a $4.5 million loan request toward the purchase of the site in January.

Robert Grevey, a public information officer for the Ohio Department of Development, said approval would come from the Ohio Controlling Board, but the loan has not come up for a vote.

A Baard spokesman did not return a phone call.

Site preparation would cost about $91 million and would create 135 construction jobs at the site.

More workers would be needed to make the plant a reality.

The Cleveland-Pittsburgh industrial corridor has an excellent reputation for manufacturing, Drake said.

The plant would use Ohio’s high- sulfur coal during the process to create a liquid fuel.

Drake said that in 2001, some 31 million tons of coal were mined in the state. In 2008, coal mining dropped to 20 tons.

At the proposed plant, Ohio coal would be broken down rather than burned.

Carbon dioxide from the process can be injected underground and sealed, Drake said.

wilkinson@vindy.com