A controversial project to turn coal into liquid fuels in southwest Ohio has been abandoned by way of a negotiated settlement, amid legal challenges by environmental groups over pollution permits and questions about the ability of owner Baard Energy to secure financing.

As the first coal-to-liquid refinery to be awarded pollution permits in the U.S., the settlement may have dealt a blow to the broader industry, underscoring problems with the expensive and polluting process that once thought to provide a viable alternative to petroleum-based liquid fuels.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced yesterday a new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule to improve air quality for 240 million Americans by significantly reducing harmful smokestack emissions produced outside of their own state borders.

Specifically targeted are sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emitted by coal-fired power plants and transported hundreds of miles by wind and weather. Once aloft, these pollutants react with the atmosphere to create ground-level ozone (smog) and fine particle soot linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

“Coal pollution is killing Americans,” said Lynn Ringenberg, MD, of Physicians for Social Responsibility which co-released the analysis. “It is America’s biggest source of toxic air pollution. Air toxics from coal-fired power plants cause cancer, birth defects, and respiratory illness. Just one of those air toxics, mercury, damages the developing brains of fetuses, infants, and small children. It robs our children of healthy neurological development and native intelligence.

The states on the “Toxic 20” list, starting with the worst, are:

1. Ohio    
2. Pennsylvania    
3. Florida    
4. Kentucky    
5. Maryland    
6. Indiana    
7. Michigan    
8. West Virginia    
9. Georgia    
10. North Carolina
11. South Carolina
12. Alabama    
13. Texas    
14. Virginia        
15. Tennessee
16. Missouri
17. Illinois
18. Wisconsin
19. New Hampshire
20. Iowa

Despite the challenges of harnessing renewable energy sources and the challenges of delivering renewable power to power supply grids worldwide, wind and solar are pushed as the solutions for weaning the global economy off of fossil fuels.

Yet, though renewables get all the good press, they have been unable to make the leap to mainstream energy production for myriad reasons.

Energy has evolved from wood, to whale oil, to coal, to petroleum and to nuclear, and now the global economy desperately needs to move towards the vast promise of continuous renewable energy. There are many who believe that wind and solar, in particular, are the next step in the evolution of energy.

The strength of the economic recovery holds the key to how energy markets will evolve over the next few years. With the inevitable expiration of workable fossil fuel supplies and the escalating costs of providing energy from them, renewable energy is the only logical and economical solution.

It seems logical that coal would be used as the predominant non-renewable fuel of the future until other non-petroleum-based substitutes are fully developed. Coal burns cleaner, despite the false image that associates coal with the dingy, smog-choked air of the old coal-burning cities and towns, particularly during the Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, according to The World Coal Institute (WCI), “technologies have been developed to improve the environmental performance of coal-use techniques” and that the efficient burning of coal-based fuels results in the release of fewer pollutants into the atmosphere. All fossil fuels produce greenhouse gases; but, greenhouse gases from coal contribute to less than 20% of any enhanced greenhouse effect.