The Manchin administration today approved an air pollution permit for the Trans-Gas Development coal-to-liquids plant proposed for Mingo County, W.Va.
Officials from the WVDEP’s Division of Air Quality approved the permit and issued a Final Engineering Determination combined with a response to public comments.
As we’ve discussed on Coal Tattoo before, coal-to-liquids technology will generate twice the greenhouse gas emissions of standard gasoline, unless the production plants are equipped with carbon capture technology — which the Trans-Gas facility isn’t.
Sierra Club spokesman Bill Price issued the following statement about WVDEP’s approval of the TransGas permit:
Today’s announcement is disappointing. Moving forward with this huge new source of air pollution is simply a bad investment. This plant is not “clean” , would use a massive amount of precious water and would continue to destroy mountains and communities.
It’s time for WV public officials to realize that the way for West Virginia to prosper in the future is to start moving away from coal, to diversify our economy and get in on the clean energy game. We can have jobs without jeopardizing our natural heritage or our futures.
In its response to comments, the WVDEP said there are no current federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions and that the state’s Air Pollution Control Act would allow the WVDEP to enact such limits in the absence of federal limits only if the agency concludes, “there exists scientifically supportable evidence for such” limits based on “factors unique to West Virginia.”
The WVDEP said:
The DAQ believes that a Division-level regulatory program targeting GHGs in West Virginia would certainly violate the intent of the APCA. At the very least, no reasonable argument can be made that issues surrounding global climate change are unique to West Virginia. The APCA would not support a “statutory air pollution” conclusion with respect to GHG regulation even if the DAQ were prepared to make that determination.
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No surprise here, after all, this is the WV Department of Environmental PERMITTING.
What is really interesting about Trans-Gas Development is their history. The only other thing this company has tried to do is build a large coal-fired power plant in New York City. After years of trying to cram the project down resident’s throats through prolonged legal efforts and pultiple permit and regulatory filings, community action and organizing persuaded state regulators to squash the idea.
This is not new technology ; Hitler converted converted coal to liquids 75 years ago. The entire German war machine run from this type of fuel.
Well,Shock me,Shock me, Shock me, It’s the Department of Easy Permits handing them out again! Why does this come as a Surprise to anyone that knows and has watched them over the years hand out Permits to anyone who can afford one???????
Coal to gas is not new to WV .A plant was built in 1970 between New Martinsville an Moundsville. Was run about 4 years. Scaped it your tax dollars at work
It’s a shame that West Virginia’s governor is focusing more on expanding the coal industry rather than looking out for the long term economic and environmental interests of his residents. Sure, we all know that coal is important to West Virginia’s economy for now. But what about the future? A new clean energy economy is out there with thousands of green jobs for hardworking West Virginians amidst this economic recession. With a national climate change bill that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, Congress can spur innovation within the renewable energy sector to break the link between West Virginians’ economic livelihoods and the coal industry. We spend a billion dollars a day on foreign oil. Instead, why not invest some of that money into transitioning states like West Virginia into the growing clean energy economy?
Two words for this whole idea – Apple Grove.
Remember the mega pulp mill that a private out of state corporation wanted to build in little Apple Grove, WV, in Mason County back in the early 1990s? State development and environmental officials fell all over themselves offering tax incentives and ways to get the various permits needed, as well as removing various obstacles like (shades of Marsh Fork!) an elementary school. The tax incentives/breaks alone worked out to over $1 million per promised job. But a few people thought a pulp mill that used chlorine bleaching technology that would dump even more dioxin into the already overloaded Ohio River upstream from their drinking water was not a good thing, and fought the permits.
The private out of state corporation eventually went somewhere else. And recently closed down that mill, gutting the economy of the entire area that had been built up around it, and leaving those people, and that state, stuck with a polluted mess that is going to take a long, long time to clean up. Why does WV keep trying to make the same mistakes over and over and over again?