more Money

Printable version.
Email this to a friend.

A Pennsylvania company is considering locating a coal-to-diesel project in Logan County that could bring at least 150 permanent jobs, a company official said.

John Rich, president of Waste Management and Processors Inc., said that the company needs federal tax credits that would be provided by an energy bill currently being debated in Congress for the project to become a reality.

Rich said the 5,000 barrels per day of diesel the plant would produce would cost more than diesel fuel derived from petroleum, but that's because the cost of depending on foreign energy sources isn't factored into the price.

"We wouldn't even be having this discussion if the true cost of oil was reflected at the pump," he said.

An energy bill currently before Congress would provide the tax credits and other incentives Rich says his company needs to commercialize the coal-to-diesel process.

Rich's company plans to build several $600 million coal-to-diesel plants. The first would be built in Pennsylvania while the second would be built on a 300-acre site in Logan County.

The technology is based on a process that Sasol, a South African company, uses to produce synthetic fuel.

The Logan County project, located next to about 35 million tons of waste coal, would use that waste coal plus some non-waste coal to produce the fuel. Rich said his company has been moving ahead on the project with the assumption that the energy bill would pass.

"We've been down a couple of times and sampled the material," Rich said.

Waste Management and Processors Inc. has a memorandum of understanding with the state Development Office to work together on getting the plant built. David Satterfield, executive director of the Development Office, said the state is interested in the project but doesn't expect a ribbon cutting any time soon.

Continue 1 | 2