January 15, 2002

With the United States on the verge of a war in Iraq, there is no better time for the nation to get serious about finding alternatives to Middle East oil.

That’s why Monday’s announcement that the U.S. Energy Department has approved a $100 million grant for John Rich’s coal gasification project is so timely, and so welcome.

Rich, heir to Schuylkill County’s Gilberton Coal Co., has been on a crusade for a decade. Although he has at times found it difficult to get the government and industry executives to listen, it appears those officials are now believers.

Rich’s company, Waste Management and Processors, wants to build a $612-million facility that would convert 5,400 tons of anthracite waste per day into diesel fuel for commercial use. Earlier, Rich received a $7.6 million startup grant from the Energy Department and $47 million in tax incentives from the Pennsylvania legislature.

Monday’s announcement was just what Rich needed to get the facility on the way to construction.

The plant, to be built near the current Gilberton facility either in Mahanoy or West Mahanoy Township, will have two huge benefits. First, it will help reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. Using South African technology, the Gilberton plant will produce more than 5,000 barrels of clean fuel every day.

In addition, it will turn Pennsylvania’s vast reserves of culm into something useful. By some estimates, Pennsylvania’s supply of coal and coal waste exceeds the energy equivalence of Iraq’s known petroleum reserves. “This could be the opening wedge for becoming independent of OPEC oil,” Sen. Arlen Specter said Monday.

In addition to the energy payoffs, the project would help rid the anthracite region of some of the culm that scars our landscape and pollutes our streams, as well as create 150 permanent jobs for Schuylkill County.