Baard rules out federal funds

WELLSVILLE — A proposed coal-to-fuel plant will not seek federal loan guarantees in order to keep the project going.

Baard Energy of Vancouver, Wash., issued a statement Friday that it would no longer work on the application for funds.

John Baardson, the chief executive officer of Baard Energy, said in a statement that the U.S. Department of Energy had told him that it would have to take into account any challenges to the project.

The Sierra Club and the The Natural Resources Defense Council had filed challenges against the plant, but the Ohio Environmental Agency approved the plan.

The $6 billion plant, if constructed here, would burn Ohio coal and create thousands of construction jobs and several hundred permanent jobs.

The state this week approved $5 million in stimulus funds to complete a river-rail-truck facility near the proposed Baard plant.

But Baardson said any legal challenges to the process of the plant may drag out the start of the project, and that is why the company is no longer seeking federal loan money.

Area legislators have been supporting the plant. It would turn coal into liquid fuel that could be used in military planes.