For Sanity’s Sake: Come to a Hearing to Oppose Coal-to-Liquid Plant in Mason County

There is a new threat on the horizon in our neck of the woods! Kevin Whited’s Domestic Synthetic Fuels is applying for a permit to build a toxic coal liquefaction plant along the Ohio River in Mason County, WV. (Note that Kevin Whited is “the head of a West Virginia company that has not repaid a $250,000 loan to Washington County (who) is (now) proposing a $1.2 billion energy project in western West Virginia.”)

At a time when every signal the Earth is apparently attempting to send us is along the lines of: “Stop with the greenhouse gases already!” the idea of building a coal to liquid factory is nuts.  

If built, the plant would spew more than 71 tons of carbon monoxide, 80 tons of nitrogen oxides, 132 tons of fine particulate matter, 83 tons of sulfur dioxide, 86 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and more than 16 tons of other unnamed hazardous air pollutants per year! And this facility would be within three miles of both Point Pleasant middle and high schools!

All for the fool’s errand of turning coal into diesel fuel, a “technology” that has proven time and again to be uneconomical and downright stupid.

What can you do? Come out for the air quality permit hearing this Tuesday, July 30 at 6 p.m. at the Mason County Courthouse, 200 Sixth Street, Point Pleasant, WV, 25550.

Find all the details from the DEP Public Meeting Notice here.

Can’t come to the hearing? Please do submit comments. Find the details you will need for commenting here, along with some links to relevant news stories. E-mail alex@ohvec.org if you would like some tips for commenting.

Find the event on Facebook here and please do invite others to come out.