We have all heard of the news of an outfit based in Vancouver,WA, called Baard Energy that is considering the possibility of putting a coal-to-liquids processing (CTL) plant on the outskirts of Wellsville, OH. If it comes to being it will cost Baard Energy somewhere near $4 billion dollars just to build the place. If it comes to being it will bring hundreds if not thousands of craftsmen to the area to build it. If it comes to being it would make the demand for building materials go through the ceiling that could be supplied by area businesses. If it comes to being it will mean a greatly increased incentive to open local businesses to feed, clothe, provide services and house these craftsmen. It will mean jobs not only for those craftsmen but for some of us that live in the area. That translates into wage taxes, sales taxes and other money making propositions for all concerned. However I'm putting the cart before horse here. Being from the ville I am excited with the potential, if it comes to being.
There have been articles in the local papers explaining what a CTL plant does. In case you missed that it converts coal to a liquid fuel that can replace gasoline. Simply put it is similar to ethanol which uses corn to start with. I suspect Baard Energy likes the Wellsville site for several reasons but mostly for its location. There is the developing Port Authority in the lower end of the village. There is the coal rich areas in not only Ohio but in PA & WV too. Then there is the transportation advantages. Barge transportation is chief among them not to mention our highway and rail availability. As they teach business students the first rule of building a successful company is location, location, location... Baard Energy is a leader in alternative fuel applications. CTL is not new. The Germans used it in WWII. It is new to us.
Along with anything new there will be the nay sayers. Some are already arguing that the amount of fuel produced by such a plant would not come anywhere close to what we Americans use in petroleum based fuels. That may be true but we have to begin somewhere to get out from under our dependency of foreign produced oil. Some say the burning of coal is dirty and noxious. That is true but we don't have ill effects from Stratton or Shippingport with their scrubbers, buffers & filters. They both burn coal to crank the generators. The tree huggers will come out of the wood work with dooms day predictions of the effects such a plant will have on our environment. With all the new enviromental technology, the EPA regulations and watch dog groups I'm venturing to say the effect will be next to nothing. In studies done by the Idaho National Labs & DOE National Energy Technology Labs it has already been proven that CTL fuels are less dangerous than diesel fuel and petroleum derived gasoline. Both studies have shown that the carbon dioxide emissions are at least equal or below what we're burning in our cars, trucks and airplanes today. Some argue that the production of ethanol from corn increases the cost of food. The price of gas jacks up the food prices much more than ethanol.
So, if this plant gets built in the Wellsville area and it proves to be successful it will probably spawn the building of another plant somewhere else in this country. So on and so on... Then some day maybe Uncle Sam can tell the Arabs, the Mexicans and Venezuelans to keep their oil. Maybe some day our children will not have to go to far away countries to fight wars because those countries are rich in oil reserves.
CTL is a progressive new technology as far as we Americans are concerned and as with anything new there will be fears of the unknown. However, in my humble opinion, I think those fears will be baseless. Sure there will be some growing pains but that is to be expected. From the "Book of They" it is quoted that the only thing certain in life is change. Our energy demands are fulfilled at the mercy of foreigners. We need to change that.
A CTL plant will not only be a boom for Wellsville it will be a boom for our entire region - if it comes to being.
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The main reason they picked this location is the rail service is so close. This company needs COAL AND LOTS OF IT. Norfolk Southern railway can bring coal out of Mingo Jct and Conway Pa right to this location. Using a barge is NOT Chief anymore when it comes to hauling products. Rail service is cheaper and can haul over 100 rail cars at a time to this site. I feel strong that this company will come to the OUTSKIRTS of Wellsville. They are looking at a place in Loweville Ohio as well. Rail service runs right through the area as well and Coal is transported from Conway pa to Meadville pa and also to Ashtabula Ohio. It is another very excellent choice for the new company. The land in this county at this time isnt worth crap so there is a bigger chance the company will locate here. I am sure Loweville still has higher land prices than this hole we live in. I do hope it comes to this area.
Nib--
I too am excited about Baard Energy and the coal conversion plant proposed for Wellsville. Unlike other recent energy plant proposals that did not reach fruition, this one looks like it might make it off the drawing board.
I urge you, however, not to confuse reasonable concern with "nay-saying." The issue that has not been discussed is the possible negative effects such large amounts of coal transport might have on Wellsville as a residential community. If the economic benefits to the local economy are to be substantial, quality-of-life concerns may be a reasonable exchange. It could be too that such concerns are unfounded in the first place. I do not know.
What I do know is that Wellsville residents have complained for years about excessive coal dust from a comparatively small offloading business already operating in town--and not without cause. To what extent will the Baard plant increase this problem? Will residents be informed about this and other potential environmental issues beforehand? Or will they have to wait and see what comes down once the plant is built?
Certainly at this point there is no reason to oppose this kind of major development, regardless of disagreements over how it will affect United States foreign oil dependency. What WE need here are the jobs and the economic activity such a project will spawn. Such optimism does not mean that asking questions about possible negative consequences is "nay-saying." It is merely a matter of seeking information as a means of comprehending the whole picture. After all, $8 billion represents an awful lot of power and influence.
Where is the Chamber of Commerce? There should be a working plan in place right now to promote the town to these new people. There is opportunity here but there is a lot of work to do. Let people know about your rich history, tell them what you are doing right now to make changes and give them your vision for the future. Promote the town so people will move to Wellsville instead of Steubenville or Chester or East liverpool.
Wondering what rodrigo had to offer in his comment? Me too. I went to a translation web site & found a translation for Portuguese. Here is what they gave me.
"Hi, I thought that your blog for the quite interesting google tá I liked this post. When it gives it calls in for my blog, it is on personalized T-shirts, it shows step by step how it will create a quite manageable personalized T-shirt. Up to more."
Sounds to me rodrigo is trying to sell t-shirts. Sorry pal, that wasn't the subject of this post. I'll pass.
When Pip says….“Let people know about your rich history, tell them what you are doing right now to make changes and give them your vision for the future.” I couldn’t agree more! However, if this administration has a vision for the future it must be under lock and key because what is going on does not make any sense whatsoever! For example, putting in new street signs without fixing the sidewalks, duh. If this is a plan then please tell me what I am missing. We will probably see them next year tearing that work out to put in new sidewalks, who knows? Also isn’t it interesting who the contractor on the street signage job is? And by the way, when did this money for this project fall from the sky and become available? The local government should be open and forthright and at the same time inform the people what their plans are. Maybe there are some taxpayers who believe that the streets should be a higher priority than street signs? This leads me to think that something should, at least, be investigated . We know that the newspapers will not ask the needed questions so the residents must. After all it is the residents money we are talking about.
Having said that, wouldn’t one think that the taxpayers of the “ville” should be provided with and want to know about the cost, for the projects currently happening? For example, (1) the cost of the electrical aspect of Broadway lighting, (2) the cost of repainting the Broadway Park Lights, (3) the ville’s portion of the cost for the resurfacing of Lincoln Ave, (4) was any tax money used to pay for the trees on Broadway, (5) how were the streets at 12th and Main and 15th and Commerce that were resurfaced, funded and at what cost to the taxpayers (6) what is the dollar amount that a project must be before it is required to be advertised? These are questions that I think any taxpayer (resident) of the “ville” should and want to be knowledgeable of.
Don’t mis-interpret what I am saying here, I think all of the above are an enhancement to the ville, however, the openness’ of this administration leaves a lot of questions unanswered and the question is way? Or maybe things are just now happening because an election is soon at hand……who knows? One thing is for sure, people that will hopefully be coming because of the Baard project will, I can assure you, want this type of information before they invest in this community.
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