Air Force pushes environmentally dangerous coal-to-liquid plants

High-ranking Air Force officials have been meeting with investors and state officials in an attempt to get financing and support for coal-to-liquid (CTL) plants to be established at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana and in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Coal-to-liquid plants can create more than twice as much carbon dioxide as making fuel from oil.

CTL technology converts coal into a liquid fuel through a method called the Fischer-Tropsch process. This method creates more than twice as much carbon dioxide—the main gas implicated in global warming—as producing fuel from petroleum. At present, there are no CTL plants in the United States.

Some advocates of CTL say that the plants can be outfitted with carbon-capture devices and that the carbon dioxide can be buried in underground caverns. However, underground carbon storage is an unproven technology. Geologists are concerned about the possibility of catastrophic leakage in the event of an earthquake. Slow seepage of carbon is also a possibility. It is not clear how long carbon gases can be safely contained underground.

Additional problems with CTL include the large quantities of water needed for the processing—five to seven gallons of water per gallon of fuel which would not be available for other uses, such as agriculture. CTL is also expensive: Each plant will cost up to $5 billion.

The Air Force sponsored a private-industry-only meeting in Montana earlier this year. It does not intend to finance, construct or operate the Montana coal plant itself. Instead, it is offering private developers a 700-acre site on the Malmstrom base and a commitment to purchase the fuel.

A meeting in July in Fairbanks, Alaska, brought together high-ranking Air Force officials along with Alaska-based coal and energy industry tycoons to discuss “fast-tracking” CTL development in that state.

The Air Force was also a major player in April at an international CTL conference; William Anderson, assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for installations, environment, and logistics, spoke about the Air Force’s plan to use 50 percent synthetic fuels by 2016. The Air Force is also creating an “international network” of imperialist air forces to create a market for synthetic fuels such as liquid coal.

Why is the Air Force so interested in CTL?

Air force officials are going around making a lot of noise about supporting “alternative” or “clean” energy sources and reducing dependency on foreign oil, but the reality is that the Air Force needs to use a lot of fuel every year to keep its fighter jets and bombers in the air. The Air Force is an integral and powerful component of U.S. military strength.

General Howie Chandler, Commander of the Pacific Air Forces, attended the Fairbanks meeting in July. “We are the largest user of energy in the Department of Defense,” he said. According to Chandler, the Air Force spent $6 billion for jet fuel in 2007, paying $2.20 a gallon. (Newsminer.com, July 19)

Skyrocketing oil prices are driving up the cost of traditional fuels. Without fuel, Air Force planes are useless. “Competition for global oil is only going to get more intense and more pricey,” said Corey Henry, spokesman for the Coal to Liquids Coalition, a group representing CTL technology companies (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 11, 2007). The Air Force is looking for alternatives to conventional fuel as part of its longer-range strategy for U.S. global domination.

The Air Force’s involvement in CTL stands to be a boon to the coal industry. Recently, electric utilities have rejected plans for at least four dozen proposed coal-fired power plants because of higher costs and environmental problems. Thus, the coal industry stands to gain if the Air Force plan takes effect and CTL plants are developed.

“This is a change agent for the entire industry,” said John Baardson, CEO of Baard Energy in Vancouver, Wash., which wants to build a CTL plan in Ohio. “There would be a number of plants that would be needed just to support [the Air Force’s] needs alone.” (NMA Mining Week, March 28)

The coal industry is notorious for its deadly track record on health, safety and the environment. If coal miners survive the day-to-day mining process, they face long-term health problems from exposure to coal dust. Unhampered mining has devastated the landscape in many communities.

Now the Air Force and the coal industry want to join hands to develop liquid coal in a process that wastes water and creates even more global warming gases than conventional fuels—so that bombers and fighter planes can continue to rain terror on peoples resisting imperialism. Environmentalists, anti-war activists and working people need to join hands and say “No!”