Environmentalists are strongly opposed to a proposed new refinery in West Virginia that would convert coal to methanol and gasoline. Among the environmental hazards the $800 million, 100-million-gallon capacity plant would bring are increased mountaintop removal coal mining, more emissions of greenhouse gases, increased need for water and greater tainted water discharges, environmentalists say.

Mining giant Consol Energy Inc. and a Texas gasification company announced plans yesterday to build an $800 million plant in West Virginia that would convert coal to methanol and gasoline.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- China's appetite for coal is growing rapidly and moving quickly into the transportation sector despite central government directives aimed at curbing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The rise of China's coal-to-liquids industry is not good news for California or the western United States, whose inhabitants will have to deal with the air pollution drifting across the Pacific from Beijing's coal-fired energy push.

HOUSTON -- High oil prices are making coal-to-liquid technology competitive with conventional gasoline even without big federal subsidies, the developer of a planned Wyoming CTL plant said today.

"We think we have moved into a new era in terms of oil pricing, which is suitable for putting coal-to-liquids facilities in place," said Robert Kelly, a partner in DKRW Advanced Fuels, at an energy conference here.

The company's plant could return profits in the 15 percent range when oil is roughly $60 per barrel, he said. Crude oil was trading this morning at $93.60 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.