A new House bill introduced on July 26 funds loan guarantees and extends alternative fuels tax credits for first generation technologies that use America’s abundant domestic coal.

"America’s accelerating dependence on imported foreign oil can be stopped in its tracks if Congress takes bold steps to foster the deployment of technologies for converting abundant domestic coal into ultra-clean fuels. The American-Made Energy Freedom Act embraces this critical component of our overall strategy to cut America’s energy import bill and to take greater control of our economic destiny," said National Mining Association (NMA) President and CEO Kraig R. Naasz.

By funding loan guarantees under the Energy Policy Act for plants producing coal-based fuel and extending the alternative fuels excise tax credits for coal-to-liquids (CTL) products, the bill reduces the financial risks that accompany the introduction of first-generation technologies in the US.

The NMA reports that a typical CTL plant costs about $1 billion for a 10,000 bbl/day facility and at least $6.5 billion for a large-scale 80,000 bbl/d plant with a five-to-seven-year lead time. Based on NMA analysis, a feasible, near-term goal would be the production of at least 300,000 bbl/d of high-grade fuel by 2015 using CTL technology — a supply equal to the amount of transportation fuel consumed daily by the US military for domestic operations.

Additional information on coal-to-liquids technology is available at www.futurecoalfuels.org