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Winds of Change Newsletter, March 2011 See sidebar for table of contents
Legal Brief: Coal-to-Liquid Air Appeal
The WV Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
has granted an air permit to TranGas Development Systems of New York for
a coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant in Mingo County.
OVEC is appealing this permit, together with Coal
River Mountain Watch, the Sierra Club, and WV Highlands Conservancy.
Fuel created from CTL plants creates twice as much
greenhouse gases as coal used as fuel, and these plants are also very
heavy polluters of the local air and water.
The WV Air Quality Board held two hearings on our
appeal, but no decision has been reached. Thanks to Sierra Club attorney
Elena Saxonhouse for representing us.
The proposed Mingo County plant would use 3 million
tons of coal to produce more than 6.5 million barrels of gasoline per
year. It doesnt appear that sufficient investment capital is available
at this time, but the company and other coal-backers hope that your tax
dollars will help to build this unwise and heavily-polluting investment.
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