Editorial: What’s this about coal?

Friday, Jan. 26, 2007 | 8:44 a.m.

W e had hoped that in his State of the State address, delivered Monday night, Gov. Jim Gibbons would have outlined a bold new energy plan for Nevada, one placing power from the sun as its centerpiece.

Instead, he applauded past legislative initiatives to provide incentives for renewable industries in our state but offered nothing that would build on them.

Rather than focus on Nevada's potential to be a national leader in the production of solar energy, as well as wind and geothermal, Gibbons said, "I will encourage the creation of a coal-to-liquids fuels plant in Nevada, similar to the successful plant in Wyoming."

With traditional energy prices at all-time highs, such plants are attracting attention because they could produce, at competitive costs, fuels that burn much cleaner than lump coal and oil-based fuels. Once in operation, their output would enable cutbacks on imported oil. But where they are being discussed is in states that have coal, including Montana and Wyoming.

Nevada has no coal. The billions of tons needed for a coal-to-liquids plant would be brought in by rail, which would increase costs and make the energy produced here uncompetitive with that produced in states with coal.

Gibbons said he was inspired by a visit with Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal. Wyoming has made news over the past couple of years for being on track to build the first coal-to-liquids plant in the nation, near the town of Medicine Bow - and near a coal mine. Construction on the plant, being built by a Houston company, is expected to begin late this year and be finished by 2010.

The jury is still out on whether coal-to-liquids technology is a savior or an environmental hazard. The "clean coal" production process removes and captures pollutants, including carbon dioxide, the gas most responsible for global warming. There is no agreement yet that there are foolproof methods to prevent the captured pollutants from ultimately escaping.

But a more immediate environmental problem would face Nevada. The Montana Environmental Information Center, a nonprofit group, says, "Coal-to-liquids plants consume massive quantities of water." Ironically, earlier in his speech, Gibbons had said, "We have the driest state in the nation and one of the highest rates of growth - a combination that places tremendous stress on our precious water resources."

It is regrettable that Gibbons has latched onto an energy idea that depends on water-intensive procedures and imported resources when Nevada has few peers in the world when it comes to sunshine. Why look out of state for an unproven and finite coal-based technology when the unlimited solar energy here is largely untapped?

The answer is because Gibbons lacks a vision for this state's energy future. We hope the Legislature understands that we need a plan based on our own resources, not Wyoming's.