Last week, she reminisced about fishing for bass with her dad, long ago, when the Coal River still ran clear. Massey Energy Co. runs a coal processing plant that looms over her family's back yard. Massey and DTE Energy plan to claim the credits under a 1980 act passed to encourage development of alternative fuels and decrease oil imports. Miller and 10 of her neighbors walked around Sylvester one day last week, airing fears about the new plant. The local elementary school, town hall, Baptist church and homes are already routinely covered by coal dust blowing from the Elk Run complex.
Residents fear things can only get worse.
Today, I had to clean coal dust off the stove before I could cook anything. Massey wants DTE Energy, Detroit Edison's parent company based in Ann Arbor, Mich., to move a synfuel plant from Consolidation Coal's Bishop Mine in McDowell County to the Boone County mining complex. DTE Energy might soon become the second largest synfuel producer in West Virginia, behind Progress Energy and Electric Fuels. DTE plans to hire 15 people to operate the synfuel plant that would process coal coming out of the Elk Run mines. They would be taking good coal, some of the best in the country, that has 13,000 BTUs per ton.