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Can coal be clean? Adam Victor says yes, with the right technology | 						syracuse.com

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Can coal be clean? Adam Victor says yes, with the right technology | 						syracuse.com

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The United States has more than one quarter of the world's coal reserves -- more energy reserves than all the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. So why are so many people opposed to using American coal to offset foreign oil?

Misinformation is certainly a key reason; new technologies allow coal to be utilized cleanly. These people may also be poorly informed about the non-coal alternatives currently jockeying to replace fossil fuels. Almost certainly, they are misled about carbon dioxide and global warming.

Coal gasification -- the chemical conversion of coal into a synthetic gas -- is a 75-year-old technology that's been proven. Once transformed, chemically converted coal can take on numerous useful forms: methane gas, gasoline, fertilizer, even plastics. The technology has advanced to the point where a daily trainload of coal, around 8,500 tons, can be converted into about a million gallons of high-grade, sulfur-free gasoline that meets or exceeds Environmental Protection Agency standards for "minor source" air emissions.

Other alternative energy forms suffer from drawbacks rarely covered by the media or spoken about by politicians. No one mentions that the 104 nuclear power plants across the United States consumed some 52 million pounds of uranium in 2007 and, of that, just two million pounds were from the United States. Our country is on the verge of becoming far more dependent on foreign fuel sources by following the path to nuclear power.

Solar energy is just as bad. Building large thermal solar stations, as is currently being experimented with in deserts around the globe, puts power generation too far away from the consumer to allow for cost-effective transmission. The 2003 blackout taught us a clear lesson: The source of power generation must be near the point of consumption.

Like solar, wind power generation suffers drawbacks. In order to tap into the North American jet stream to produce America's electric needs, estimates peg the number of windmills at about nine million. Perhaps more concerning is the fact that few studies have been conducted on the potential consequences of disrupting the jet stream. It could be catastrophic.

If global warming is indeed a fact, there is very little that can be done to stop it. Instead, the solution is adaptation and mitigation. Our engineers need to work with the same commitment as the Dutch have to expand upon 700 years of efforts to reclaim land from the sea, or the Venetians and their efforts over 1,500 years to keep their city from being swallowed by the Adriatic.

This is America; defeatists need not apply. Remember, 25,000 years ago mankind crossed from Asia into North America at a time when ice sheets two miles thick covered much of the continent as far south as Manhattan. Yet mankind prospered and did so without electricity, without Gore-Tex and without Al Gore's Internet.

Adam Victor is president of Project Orange Associates and TransGas Energy Associates. Victor has proposed building a coal gasification plant in Oswego County.

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Can coal be clean? Adam Victor says yes, with the right technology

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Jim Commentucci / The Post-StandardADAM VICTOR The United States has more than one quarter of the world's coal reserves -- more energy reserves than all the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. So why are so many people opposed to using...

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A dam Victor really dislikes Dan Doctoroff. A lot. Doctoroff didn't take the TransGas CEO's last-minute $700 million West Side bid seriously. And he has long blocked Victor's plans for a power plant on the Williamsburg waterfront, which City Hall just rezoned for high-rises. Now Victor's about to sue to scuttle the Williamsburg plan. He spoke to Greg Sargent.

If you win, it'll be another defeat for Doctoroff. I assume you were happy about the stadium.
With the West Side, Doctoroff perpetrated the biggest scam since Teapot Dome. He bamboozled the mayor into thinking we could get the Olympics.

Wait—is this suit personal?
No. I've spent a lot trying to build the plant. Doctoroff is against it.

But what's wrong with the rezoning?
People moved to Williamsburg because they didn't want to live in Manhattan.

Surely they didn't want a power plant either. Doesn't the plan offer parks?
Ugly parkland built on contaminated land. Coal gasification plants were there. Also, there's a sludge line [beneath] where they want to build high-end housing. No one will live on top of a pipe pumping 800,000 gallons of shit each day. They have to reroute it.

Okay, but what's the lawsuit's basis?
We'll show that the environmental-impact statement failed to address the sludge line.

How much will you spend?
Upwards of seven figures. If we lose, it won't be for want of funds.

How much are you worth?
A hundred million.

From? The power plant I built for Syracuse University.

Why bother with another?
It would be worth billions. Yes, I could retire. I have hobbies—weightlifting, judo, harness racing. We own 110 horses. But I don't believe in retirement. I'm the best power-plant developer. Why does Bill Gates develop new products?

Suing the city's no way to make friends you might need later.
Under the law, if the state supports the plant, the city can't stop it—though Doctoroff told me he'd kill it by not letting it get water.

Who wants it in Albany?
Many Senate and Assembly staffers. The city needs a reliable power source. Plus, it would be built in an underground bunker—it can withstand any post-9/11 attack.

Yet still no groundswell of public support. Why?
Power plants are not sexy.

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A dam Victor really dislikes Dan Doctoroff. A lot. Doctoroff didn't take the TransGas CEO's last-minute $700 million West Side bid seriously. And he has long blocked Victor's plans for a power plant on the Williamsburg waterfront, which City Hall just rezoned for high-rises. Now Victor's about to sue to scuttle the Williamsburg plan.

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Adam Victor visits Coal Gasification Power Plant in Spain - YouTube

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Adam Victor visits Coal Gasification Power Plant in Spain - YouTube

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Transgas Development Systems Adam Victor

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Adam Victor visits Coal Gasification Power Plant in Spain

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New York Businessman Adam Victor visits PRENFLO® operation in Puertollano, Spain, the world's largest solid-fuel-based International Green Construction Code (IGCC) power plant. Adams Fork Energy located in Mingo County, West Virginia, will use this Coal Gasification technology to convert coal to fertilizer.