Coming soon: A "Strategic Fuel Ecoplex"

Silverado Green Fuel Inc. digs up low grade lignite coal, cooks it to drain its water, adds water back to produce an oily gook that they have the gall to call "Green Fuel". They want to build a "Strategic Fuel Ecoplex" in Alaska. The Green Fuel isn't good for much- you have to make an atomized spray out of it, so it could be used in oil-fired power stations, of which there are few. However the next stop in the ecoplex is to turn the Green Fuel into synthetic natural gas, which can be done, with one small hitch- "gasification and liquefaction process releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and will also require a large increase in coal mining "with all the environmental problems which that entails." Silverado admits that gasification produces four times as much CO2 as just burning the coal straight, but "There is such as huge market and such a high demand that there cannot be enough coal-to-liquid plants built in this country," ie- global warming be damned, we have to drive to the mall. We will give them credit- only a genius could invent the term "Strategic Fuel Ecoplex" for a coal-to-gas refinery- that and "Green Fuel" give new meaning to the term "Greenwashing". Otherwise this is one project that should be deeply sequestered. ::Silverado via ::UPI via ::Wired