I did a quick web search on Waste Management and Processors Inc. and found references at least as far back as 1999. Here's an article from 2000 about the company getting a big federal grant. They've apparently received several grants, both from the federal government and Pennsylvania. It does help to have friends in high places, regardless of who currently is sitting in the Oval Office.

From this article:

Rich is the president of Schuylkill County-based Waste Management and Processors Inc. With corporate partners Bechtel Group Inc., a San Francisco-based engineering giant, a coal gasification unit of Texaco Inc., and Sasol Group, a South African energy, chemical and technology firm, he wants to turn coal waste into an environmentally friendly diesel fuel.



His planned 20-acre coal-to-liquid-fuel plant in Gilberton was the subject of a recent story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It began:

"Like larger-than-life tombstones, the black piles of coal waste on the denuded hillsides that pock northeastern Pennsylvania mark the devastation left by decades of mining. But John W. Rich Jr., entrepreneur and partial heir to a family coal fortune, says his company and its partners will change all of that for Schuylkill County, and perhaps for other coal regions across the country."

His usual prop is the jar of sulfur-free diesel fuel. The $300 million project would produce about 5,000 barrels of diesel fuel each day and create 1,000 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs. A groundbreaking is anticipated in 2003.

In 1999, prompted by the leadership of Rep. Bob Allen, R-Schuylkill, the state authorized $47 million in tax credits for the Rich project. (U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and U.S. Rep. Tim Holden are trying to duplicate that effort at the federal level.) The U.S. Energy Department will put up $7.6 million to supplement the $4.4 million that Waste Management & Processors will pay for design and feasibility work.

To those who question the subsidy, Rich maintains that taxpayers subsidize imported oil with the U.S. troops that are stationed in the Middle East. Coal-to-fuel plants would put the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in their place, he said, and end any thought of drilling for oil and natural gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.



While 5000 barrels a day isn't a lot, it's a start. Much of the cost for developing a new process is R&D. If the project is economically viable, then building subsequent plants shouldn't be so expensive. All sorts of costs like basic engineering and environmental impact are borne by the first plant. It's also possible this technology is scalable to much larger plants. Remember, oil refineries evolved over time. They didn't all start out to be as big as current refineries.

I added the emphasis about the number of jobs in response to your remarks. A thousand construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs, especially in an economically hard hit area, are always welcome. Preference has to be given to people qualified to do the work, not necessarily to the unemployed.