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Coal-to-Liquid Fuels: COAL MINING
What about the Coal?
According to the governor, one ton of coal produces 1.5 barrels of diesel fuel. Using this ratio, the Roundup coal-to-liquids plant would require more than five million tons of coal per year. In addition, the 300 MW IGCC plant would require roughly one million tons per year, which raises the third major concern—coal extraction. Montana’s current coal production is in the neighborhood of 40 million tons per year, so this one project would require a 15% production increase. A 150,000 barrel-per-day scenario would require doubling Montana’s coal production.
The mining of coal comes at significant cost to the environment. Most of Montana’s coal is obtained by strip mining, which involves landscape disturbances on a scale that can be severely disruptive to wildlife habitat, air and water quality, recreation, and traditional farm and ranch operations. While the governor refers to strip-mining as “deep farming,” the extraction of fossil fuels by the use of draglines and 100-ton capacity haul trucks bears little resemblance to harvesting renewable resources through agriculture. By contrast, renewable energy projects enhance rather than threaten rural economies. They create demand for new crops, such as oil seeds, and help to diversify property owners’ income through land leases or power sales from wind projects.