Fools rush in where private enterprise fears to tread

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.
To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest, With The Plow Robert Burns

Whenever I hear of the latest talk out of Pikeville, where elected officials are falling all over themselves to be seen as supporters of the scheme that would turn coal into diesel, I can’t help but be reminded of the Biblical story from the second chapter of Daniel concerning the dream of the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, wherein he saw the great idol whose body was composed of fine metals. It was only the feet of the idol that was composed of common materials, potter’s clay and iron. It fell to the Hebrew, Daniel, to tell Nebuchadnezzar that these feet of clay would be the undoing of this statue, an allegory for his kingdom. This expression, feet of clay, has come to mean small details that will undo larger aims.

One can only imagine how Nebuchadnezzar felt when he saw the idol in his dreams; its head was made of gold, its chest and arms of silver, its lower body of brass, and legs of iron. Had these been the only things to consider, Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom would have been secure. But there were those feet of clay. In the dream to make Pike County the leader in the nation’s drive for energy independence, being able to produce diesel from coal must loom as large as the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. What fine things this dream is composed of; the idealistic goal of lessening our dependence of what are, by any definition of the term, unstable sources of petroleum, the jobs that having such a plant built in Pike County would produce, and the resultant positive impact on the local economy. But like the great idol which Nebuchadnezzar saw, this dream, too, had its feet of clay, and, like Daniel of old, who played the part of the deliverer of bad news, someone must tell those modern day dreamers that, unless certain troubling aspects of such a project can be adequately addressed, this colossus may be similarly doomed.

I can’t imagine that Daniel was the most popular fellow in the kingdom after he delivered his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. But then, those with bad news are seldom made to feel welcome, especially when everyone has had their hopes raised. In this situation, playing the part of Daniel is the group, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth(KFTC). You remember, this is the group that former State Representative Howard Cornett-who momentarily confused them with the Appalshop people-called a bunch of old hippies. So here we are, all waiting for the good times to roll, when KFTC shows up, and points out the fact that the feet of this statue are, at least in its opinion, composed of the same clay that doomed the Babylonian kingdom. And I would bet that KFTC is just as popular in Pikeville as Daniel was in Babylon.

But if anything good is to come of the proposal to turn Kentucky coal into diesel, then all aspects of it must be examined up front. I do not mean to bring up any bad memories, but in the Tuesday, June 19, 2007 edition of the APEX that tells of the symposium whose aim it is to get the ball rolling, there is, ironically, an item that was meant to be included in the “Back in Time” feature about the fate of a similar proposal for the county from Judge Wayne Rutherford’s first administration, the so-called coal gasification plant. While, through regrettable oversight, this item was not printed in the body of this feature, the implication, nevertheless, is clear: Overlook any small detail here, and this project may meet a similar demise.

And one of the most troubling aspects is how to come up with the money for what will be a multibillion dollar price tag. Don’t think that a billion dollar plus price tag would, for a moment, deter private enterprise if this venture was worthwhile. A good deal more money is routinely invested when the cost can be recouped with a profit. But private enterprise is apparently not convinced of the cost-effectiveness of turning coal into diesel, as no private investor is waiting in the wings. And this is why the coal industry-with the encouragement of Kentucky’s junior senator, Jim Bunning, co-sponsor, oddly enough, with Illinois Senator, and Democratic presidential candidate, Barrack Obama of a bill to offer incentives for this proposal-is trying to secure financing from the taxpayer. But again, if private enterprise is unwilling to undertake this project on its own, why should the taxpayer be hit on?

And on the state level, we are told, in the same issue of the APEX that, among other incentives the state would offer the coal industry, is a rebate-or kickback, as my friend from high school, Squire Gregory Ward, insisted on calling it-of 80% of the coal severance tax when new coal is mined with an eye toward turning it into diesel. Nothing is mentioned on how we will ensure that coal on which such a rebate will be given will be actually be used this way. And, while it is unknown by just how much, certainly this would mean that the counties meager share of the coal severance tax would be reduced. And God only knows how badly so many of local programs are under-funded, anyway.

But the most damaging bit of bad news is the one that KFTC has brought forth, and that is the news that the diesel produced from coal is, in their words, a dirty fuel. It contains considerably more in the way of pollutants than regular diesel, pollutants that contribute to global warming, and additionally would result in a great expansion of the onerous practice of mountain top removal to produce more coal for this transformation.

It has been mentioned time and again, that this technology is not new. Nazi Germany, cut off from its normal sources of petroleum, used it to great effect during the Second World War. And, during the Arab oil embargo of the seventies, in the panic that was felt in the aftermath, this proposal was brought forth, only to be abandoned later as unworkable. So, again, and at risk of being the bearer of bad news, I would join with such notables as KFTC, and the staff of the Lexington Herald-Leader, whose editorial board has sided with those opposed to this idea, and advise the proponents of coal-to-diesel to look before you leap, and to make sure that you have a good landing area if you decide to go ahead with what will be, by any stretch of the imagination, a risky venture.