County in coalfield's heart promotes coal-to-liquid plant; illustrates need for journalists to bone up

In the heart of the Appalachian coalfield, a county government has chosen a site for what it says would be a $4 billion plant that would make 50,000 barrels a day of liquid fuel from coal for $61 a barrel and employ 750 people with an average salary of $50,000. Despite all those numbers and fanfare, Pike County Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford, right, acknowledged that "County officials have already received several proposals from interested companies, but they have not yet reviewed them," writes Cassondra Kirby-Mullins of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The site in Pikeville was chosen with an $850,000 study funded by grants from the state and the Appalachian Regional Commission, and Rutherford told the newspaper that state and federal grants would also fund infrastructure to support the plant. The local daily, the Appalachian News-Express, captures the limited news value and the promotional nature of the announcement: "Pike County officials announced Monday the completion of a study proving that sites are available for a coal-to-liquid (CTL) plant in Pike County . . . while citing no particular investor as being interested," writes Russ Cassady. (Read more) (News-Express photo, Encarta map)

The News-Express doesn't quote opponents of coal-to-liquid plants, but the Herald-Leader does. "Environmental groups are fiercely opposed," Kirby-Mullins reports. "They worry that liquid coal could contribute to global warming, citing researchers who say the process produces nearly twice the greenhouse gases that gasoline does, pumping carbon dioxide into the air — both when coal is turned into liquid, and when that liquid is burned in vehicles. They also fear coal-to-liquid plants would result in more strip mining and mountain­top removal, devastating surrounding environments." (Read more)

Meanwhile, a Kentucky congressman seems to be wondering whether a planned flight over mountaintop-removal mines was sabotaged, but the Interior Department says its pilot inadvertently left a switch on, killing the plane's battery, reports Ronnie Ellis of CNHI News Service. And in the Daily Yonder, Nell Levin of Nashville and the Tennessee Alliance for Progress describes and decries mountaintop-removal strip mining for coal, and debuts a song she wrote about it, with video and banjo by Ron Ault. (Read, watch and listen)

These stories illustrate the need for "Covering Climate Change and our Energy Future in Rural America," an Oct. 15 seminar that will conclude the annual Environmental Journalism Boot Camp of Michigan State University's Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and kick off the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, all hosted by Virginia Tech at the Hotel Roanoke in Roanoke, Va., but including trips to the coalfield. The first signup deadline, for the boot camp, is July 28. For more information, click the links above or go here.