From: Tuttle, Robert
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 12:59 PM
To: John W. Rich
Subject: Notification - DOE Issues Final EIS for the Gilberton Coal-to-Clean Fuels and Power Project
Importance: High

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Gilberton Coal-to-Clean Fuels and Power Project (DOE/EIS-0357) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and its implementing regulations.

The proposed action in the Final EIS, DOE’s preferred alternative, is to provide cost-shared funding for construction and operation of facilities near Gilberton, Pennsylvania, which have been proposed by WMPI PTY, LLC, for producing electricity, steam, and liquid fuels from anthracite coal waste. DOE selected this project for further consideration under the Clean Coal Power Initiative to demonstrate the integration of coal waste gasification and Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis of liquid hydrocarbon fuels at commercial scale. The proposed facilities would use a gasifier to convert coal waste to synthesis gas, which would be conveyed to F-T liquefaction facilities for production of liquid fuels and to a combined-cycle power plant. The power plant would use the synthesis gas to drive a gas combustion turbine and exhaust gas from the gas turbine to generate steam from water to drive a steam turbine. Both turbines would generate electricity. The EIS evaluates potential impacts of the proposed facilities on land use, aesthetics, air quality, geology, water resources, floodplains, wetlands, ecological resources, socioeconomic resources, waste management, human health, and noise. The EIS also evaluates potential impacts on these resource areas from the no-action alternative, in which the proposed facilities would not be built or operated.

A hard copy of the Final EIS is being delivered to your office.

 

Robert L. Tuttle Office of Congressional & Intergovernmental Affairs (CI-20) U.S. Department of Energy Room 7B-170 202-586-4298 Phone Direct 202-586-4891 Fax