Civil rights veteran Roy Innis on January 12 praised plans by ConocoPhillips and Peabody Energy to construct a coal gasification facility in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, saying the plant will bring new jobs to an area that desperately needs them and will provide a model for the nation on how coal-to-gas technologies can be deployed.
"This facility could not come at a better time for the families of Western Kentucky," Innis said. "This high-tech, 21st-century energy facility will reportedly create 1,200 new jobs as the plant gets built, and 500 new long-term jobs. These are relatively high-paying, skilled jobs, too. That's going to provide a real boost to the people of Western Kentucky, who very much need an economic boost right now."
Innis said the facility will gasify Kentucky coal and turn it into clean-burning natural gas – enough to provide for nearly three quarters of a million homes. It also will capture virtually all of the carbon dioxide produced in the process, making the facility "carbon-storage ready."
"Home heating bills are expected to rise across the nation in the coming years," Innis said. "That is why it is vital that we encourage greater production of homegrown American energy from all fuels and resources. Consumers need access to greater supplies of energy and to the broadest selection of resources possible."
Innis said the facility, known as Kentucky NewGas, "will be ground-breaking from a technological standpoint."
"This facility shows how we can use American technology and ingenuity to unlock the energy in coal in a very environmentally responsible manner," Innis said. "The fact that this technology captures the carbon dioxide, making Kentucky NewGas carbon storage ready, is a real step forward. Peabody and ConocoPhillips are moving the ball forward in a very important manner with this project."
"This is exactly the kind of gasification technology that environmental groups have been saying for years that America needs to build. Industry is now ready to invest the money needed to build out this technology. I call upon all non-governmental organizations that support environmentally sound development of American energy resources to support this project," he said.
Innis noted that planned facility has received bipartisan support across Kentucky, including from Governor Steve Beshear (D).
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) has been waging a national campaign for the past year to promote more domestic supply of all energy resources, following publication of Innis' highly successful book, "Energy Keepers, Energy Killers."
