Published: March 28, 2007 08:24 pm            

Coal to Liquids Coalition may spur job growth

BLUEFIELD — The newly formed National Coal To Liquids Coalition could potentially spur thousands of new jobs across coal mining regions of the United States, federal lawmakers for the two Virginias said Wednesday.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., were joined by representatives from the mining industry, labor unions and other agencies and business groups Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill for the formal kickoff of the new CTL Coalition.

The coalition will support a strong federal role for the creation of a liquid fuel derived from coal.

“It has tremendous benefits for southern West Virginia,” Rahall said following Wednesday’s press conference. “Our region is in a unique position, as it has been for so long, to be in the center of our effort to promote CTL technology.”

“With the strength of this coalition I am very encouraged that legislation we will be introducing shortly to provide a price guarantee for the operators of coal-to-liquid facilities will be approved by the Congress,” Boucher said.

Boucher emphasized the importance of expanding coal into the transportation sector. “We are overly reliant on imported petroleum which comes from politically unstable parts of the world, and the need to protect the flow of oil from those countries embroils us in conflicts and ties our hands diplomatically. Therefore, to promote our national security we need a liquid fuel derived from our most abundant domestic energy resource, which is coal. And our legislation will bring that industry to life.

“I am pleased to be working closely with Nick Rahall, with whom I have a close alliance on coal related measures. As chairman of the Resources Committee, Nick is well situated to assist the emerging coal-to-liquids industry and we are partners in the effort to bring it about.”

Rahall said the initiative to develop coal-to-liquid technology is supported by both the mining industry and labor organizations.

The benefits from the development of coal-to-liquid plants could have far-reaching consequences nationally, as well as in the coalfields of the two Virginias, he said.

“We are sure to decrease our addition to foreign oil, which would mean we would be less likely to have to engage in wars on foreign soil for oil and less at the whim of foreign dictators,” Rahall said.

Turning coal into fuel is not a new idea. The process was developed by German scientists Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch in 1925, and was used extensively by the country to fuel tanks and airplanes during World War II.

The method of turning coal into fuel is still known as the Fischer-Tropsch process.

Beginning in the 1950s, South Africa — oil-strained due to Apartheid-related embargoes — began utilizing the technology. Led by the Sasol company, the country has produced more than 700 million barrels of synthetic fuels from coal since the 1980s.

Sasol is one of several industries participating in the new Coal-To-Liquids Coalition. The coalition is comprised of developers of CTL technologies, users of CTL fuels and coal producers, including the United Mine Workers of America.

Success in the CTL industry could ignite economic growth through the coal producing regions of our country and potentially generate thousands of new jobs, Boucher said. “For the first time coal will be used for something other than general electricity and manufacturing steel. In addition to those industries, we would be able to open it up to the transportation industry as well.”

Along with the possibility of economic growth in the two Virginias’ coalfields, the success of CTL technology would also stabilize gasoline prices for Americans, according to Rahall and Boucher.

After the oil embargo of the 1970s, “we developed collective amnesia,” Rahall said.

“This time I think we recognize oil is never going to be cheap again,” he said. “We’re not going to see cheap foreign oil, which means we’re not going to see cheap gasoline anymore, unless we go this way.”

Oil prices are driven by supply and demand, but also by a lack of certainty, Boucher said.

“Unfortunately, the United States under President Bush has rattled the saber so loudly with response to Iran that it has created jitters in the world oil market, and those jitters have driven up the price of petroleum another $4 per barrel in the last week,” he said.

The formation of the National Coal To Liquid Coalition has drawn bipartisan support, Rahall said.

“This is not a Democratic issue, it’s not a Republican issue. It’s not a liberal issue, it’s not a conservative issue. It’s a national security issue for America,” Rahall said.

— Contact Samantha Perry at sperry@bdtonline.com

        

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