Rehberg promotes synthetic fuel plant
By CHARLES S. JOHNSON - IR State Bureau - 09/07/07
U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., said he met Thursday with a top U.S. Air Force official to promote the idea of building a plant at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls to convert coal into liquid fuels.
He had a meeting with William Anderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force, who has expressed interest in the agency using these synthetic fuels for half of its domestic aviation fuel use by 2015.
“They were revisiting the issue, checking my pulse to see if I’m still on board,” Rehberg said, making it clear he still strongly supports the project.
Rehberg said he has been working hard to find new missions for the Great Falls base. Malmstrom has 700 unused acres where a coal-to-liquids plant could be built, he said, with a pipeline already there, although it would need to be upgraded.
“We want a wing, with jets,” he said in a telephone interview “If we can’t get that, coal-to-liquids should be acceptable.”
The Air Force is exploring the possibility of using alternative fuel as part of the effort to secure a domestic energy supply.
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“We have the highest concentration of recoverable coal in the country in Montana,” Rehberg said, citing a new study. “We have upwards of a 500-year supply of unleased coal in Montana.”
Yet Montana ranks only sixth nationally in coal production, he said.
“This proposal would be a great way for Montana to help us invent our way into a secure energy future,” Rehberg said. “I’ll continue to work with Assistant Secretary Anderson to move this project forward.”
Rehberg said he has introduced legislation to have 10 pilot coal-to-liquids facilities on military bases across the country. However, the energy bill that the House passed before the summer break excluded coal.
He was an original cosponsor of the Coal to Liquids Fuel Promotion Act of 2007. That bill, if enacted, would provide a loan guarantee program to spur plant construction and authorize the secretary of defense to sign contracts for up to 25 years to the long-term procurement of coal-to-liquid fuels.
These long-term contracts are needed for private energy companies to build the plants to supply the Air with fuel, Rehberg said.
In addition, this bill calls for research into the environmental impacts of the process.
Rehberg said the Air Force is interested in sequestering the carbon produced by the coal-to-liquids plant, but the technology is not yet available to do that.
“We’re working on it,” he said, referring to Congress. “The Department of Energy is working on it.”
www.helenair.com/articles/2007/09/07/montana_top/a010907_01.txt
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