A search for ways to decrease America’s dependence on foreign oil and increase the efficient use of domestic energy resources has led the members of Pennsylvania’s Task Force on 21st Century Energy Policy to Schuylkill County.

Chaired by Montgomery County state Rep. Ellen M. Bard, R-153, the Energy Policy Task Force is conducting a series of fact-finding missions throughout the state in an effort to develop a strategy that promotes the efficient use of energy by residential, commercial, government, transportation and power generation users, and to promote the development and production of new sources of petroleum and alternatives to petroleum products.

The Task Force’s tour of the anthracite region began in southwestern Schuylkill County in the Pine Grove School District where the high school’s anthracite coal heating system has saved the district $100,000 in annual heating costs.

The tour also traveled to the Girard Coal Prep Plant in Butler Township and the nearby Raven Run re-mining site to witness the process of re-mining coal left behind in previously mined areas.

Speaking from the mountaintop site of Gilberton Power Co. just off Morea Road near the Borough of Frackville, the final stop in the task force tour, Bard said the anthracite region is an important site when considering energy policies for Pennsylvania for the 21st century.

The Montgomery County lawmaker commended the work of John Rich Jr., President and CEO of Waste Management Processing, Inc. (WMPI), whose co-generation facilities convert waste coal into electricity and applauded WMPI’s additional goal to convert anthracite into a clean liquid diesel fuel through a technology called coal gasification / liquification.

"You have made wonderful progress in closing the loop between production and use, and care of the environment and the progress that we’ve seen in reclaiming the land," Bard said. "And, now we’ve heard about the future for using anthracite in environmentally friendly ways to try to help solve our dependency on foreign oil."

Bard said the nation’s dependency on foreign oil, which "is clearly putting our country at risk," was the catalyst for the House Resolution 224, which authorized the formation and mission of the Task Force.

The use of anthracite decreases America’s dependence on foreign oil, according to Penn State University research. The mining and use of one million tons of anthracite reduces dependency on foreign oil by 180 million gallons.

According to Rich, Pennsylvania’s in ground coal reserves could produce 100 billion barrels of oil if existing coal gasification / liquification technologies are deployed.

The estimated 100 billion-barrel potential surpasses the proven oil reserve in Iraq.

"We have the technology and the ability to convert coal to liquid transportation fuel and clean up the environment in the process," Rich said. "By producing our own clean fuels we can send a clear message to foreign oil that their manipulation of the American people and our economy is coming to an end."

Bard said that information gathered in Schuylkill County would prove invaluable to the task forces’s recommendations to the General Assembly.

"Our tour of Schuylkill County provided Important information about the use and impact of anthracite coal," Bard said. "Anthracite coal and its role in Pennsylvania energy markets will bear directly on the recommendations the task force makes to the General Assembly."

The task force envisions creation of an energy policy that would serve as an example for other states to follow so that the United States can move rapidly toward energy indecence.

"We’re on pace to meet my goal of reporting findings to the General Assembly by May so that ideally, by next fall, we can adopt an energy policy for Pennsylvania, "Bard said.