Converting coal into clean energy won’t be cheap, easy or instant. Other countries, like China and India, are spending billions of dollars on their coal liquefaction programs.
China’s placement of its plant in Outer Mongolia leads one to wonder why it is so far from where it will be needed. There can’t be that much need for oil in Outer Mongolia! Could the Chinese (gasp!) be finding that the byproducts they are producing will make their environment worse than it already is?
There are questions that should be asked and answered before billions of dollars are spent on building and firing up coal liquefaction plants. Our past history with new technologies, especially energy technologies, has been one of build first, ask questions later.
America jumped into ethanol without considering who else might need corn besides conversion plants. America jumped into importing oil without asking who had the keys to the oil wells. The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant created a lot of jobs. It also created some very sick workers and has cost the country millions in compensation payments and not all who got sick got compensated.
There is no question that Kentucky needs jobs, especially West Kentucky. There is no question that we must find an alternative source of energy. Researching the articles in this issue, we have concerns about injecting carbon dioxide into the aquifer. How long can we do that? What will happen to the aquifer?
And, not to sound alarmist, but there are other byproducts beside carbon dioxide. One government study mentioned mercury as a byproduct of the process. Remember mercury? That’s the stuff that made American parents go bat crazy when they found out it was in children’s toys. It is poison. Pure and simple. If it is a byproduct of coal liquefaction and it will be injected with carbon dioxide, then we need to know before it gets pumped into the ground.
This is not to say that coal liquefaction is not a technology that can reap major benefits for the US. Dependence on foreign oil is a stupid policy that needs to change. But it cannot change as long as the American economy is dependent on petroleum and petroleum products, the majority of which comes from foreign sources.
Now is the time to ask questions about real costs, safe disposal of the byproducts, potential health risks and the availability of the raw material. Knowing the risks and how to deal with them will go a long way toward avoiding the debacle of injured workers, a contaminated water supply, billions of taxpayer dollars down the drain and another shuttered, useless monument to what could have been.
We are hopeful that we win the contest over Illinois and Missouri to get this facility. We think Governor Beshear’s partnership to study sequestering byproducts is a positive step. We encourage the Administration to be open and forthcoming about the benefits and the risks of coal liquefaction.
There are always risks with a new technology. Knowing what they are will benefit those who work and live around the plant. If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, then no knowledge can be fatal.
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