CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov. Joe Manchin on Monday praised CONSOL Energy's plans to build what he called "the nation's first modern coal-to-liquids plant" near one of its Northern Panhandle mines.

But plans for controlling the plant's greenhouse emissions are still being studied, officials said.

And many energy experts believe liquid coal, even with carbon dioxide capture and storage, will add to the global warming problem.

"Even under the best conditions - let's say they could capture all of their carbon emissions - it would still exceed the emissions of today's gasoline," said Patricia Monahan, deputy director for clean vehicles at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Monahan's group is among the many scientific and environmental groups that are questioning the continued push for coal-to-liquids facilities by the mining industry and coal-state politicians.

But in West Virginia, liquid coal is at the heart of Manchin's new state energy policy.

The policy, approved in December, calls for a series of coal-to-liquid plants around the state. The plan says little about climate change, and state Energy Director Jeff Herholdt has compared talking about greenhouse emissions in an energy plan to "talking about apples and oranges."

On Monday, Manchin traveled to Benwood to join local officials and developers in announcing the $800 million CONSOL coal-to-liquids plant.

"Technological solutions like this plant at Benwood will lead to more environmentally friendly ways to use our coal and hold the key to America's energy security," Manchin said in a statement.

CONSOL said the project would be a joint venture with Houston-based Synthesis Energy Systems Inc., through a new firm called Appalachian Fuel LLC.

The plant, to be built in an industrial park south of Wheeling, will convert coal to gas using a Synthesis proprietary technology called U-Gas. It is expected that this gas will be used to produce methanol for the chemical industry. The project is also expected "to be capable" of converting methanol production to about 100 million gallons a year of 87-octane gasoline, developers said.

CONSOL would provide about 1 million tons a year of coal and several hundred thousand tons a year of fine coal waste from its nearby Shoemaker Mine, officials said. Developers hope to have the plant up and running by early 2012.

"This project has the potential to transform West Virginia from a major coal producing state to a national energy center as well," said J. Brett Harvey, president of CONSOL.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov. Joe Manchin on Monday praised CONSOL Energy's plans to build what he called "the nation's first modern coal-to-liquids plant" near one of its Northern Panhandle mines.

But plans for controlling the plant's greenhouse emissions are still being studied, officials said.

And many energy experts believe liquid coal, even with carbon dioxide capture and storage, will add to the global warming problem.

"Even under the best conditions - let's say they could capture all of their carbon emissions - it would still exceed the emissions of today's gasoline," said Patricia Monahan, deputy director for clean vehicles at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Monahan's group is among the many scientific and environmental groups that are questioning the continued push for coal-to-liquids facilities by the mining industry and coal-state politicians.

But in West Virginia, liquid coal is at the heart of Manchin's new state energy policy.

The policy, approved in December, calls for a series of coal-to-liquid plants around the state. The plan says little about climate change, and state Energy Director Jeff Herholdt has compared talking about greenhouse emissions in an energy plan to "talking about apples and oranges."

On Monday, Manchin traveled to Benwood to join local officials and developers in announcing the $800 million CONSOL coal-to-liquids plant.

"Technological solutions like this plant at Benwood will lead to more environmentally friendly ways to use our coal and hold the key to America's energy security," Manchin said in a statement.

CONSOL said the project would be a joint venture with Houston-based Synthesis Energy Systems Inc., through a new firm called Appalachian Fuel LLC.

The plant, to be built in an industrial park south of Wheeling, will convert coal to gas using a Synthesis proprietary technology called U-Gas. It is expected that this gas will be used to produce methanol for the chemical industry. The project is also expected "to be capable" of converting methanol production to about 100 million gallons a year of 87-octane gasoline, developers said.

CONSOL would provide about 1 million tons a year of coal and several hundred thousand tons a year of fine coal waste from its nearby Shoemaker Mine, officials said. Developers hope to have the plant up and running by early 2012.

"This project has the potential to transform West Virginia from a major coal producing state to a national energy center as well," said J. Brett Harvey, president of CONSOL.

A variety of other state leaders, including Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, both D-W.Va., also offered immediate and wholehearted support for the CONSOL project.

Pittsburgh-based CONSOL and Synthesis Energy have signed a deal with state officials and a regional economic development group for financing and tax incentives.

Commerce Secretary Kelly Goes declined to immediately provide a copy of that deal Monday afternoon. She described it as a "best efforts" document that commits the state to helping developers obtain all tax credits and infrastructure funding for which the project might be eligible.

In Monday's announcement, developers said they have committed funds to a more detailed engineering design study. That study will include "a carbon management strategy that will focus on carbon sequestration in a deep saline aquifer."

Synthesis Energy President Tim Vail said his company's gasification technology strips carbon dioxide from the gas stream.

"We already do the capture part of the process," Vail said. "It will be included."

Ideally, Vail said, his company would find a buyer for the carbon dioxide, such as a company that would pump it underground to help enhance oil recovery. That doesn't seem to be an option in the Ohio Valley, Vail said, so his company is studying local geology to find someplace to pump the carbon dioxide to keep it out of the atmosphere.

But Tom Hoffman, a spokesman for CONSOL, said the $800 million estimate of the plant's price tag does not include carbon capture and sequestration.

"We're clearly not saying we have got some proprietary technology on CO2 capture and storage that nobody else has," Hoffman said. "We are in the early stages of planning the plant, but we are not forgetting about the CO2 issue."

Without carbon capture and storage, liquid coal is estimated to produce double the carbon dioxide as traditional transportation fuels such as gasoline. Carbon dioxide would be generated first at the fuel plant, and again when the liquid coal is burned in vehicles. Coal-to-liquid technology also uses huge amounts of water, and can be very expensive.

And some studies have found that, even if the fuel plant emissions can be captured and stored, liquid coal burned in vehicles can create 4 to 8 percent more greenhouse emissions than traditional transportation fuels.

"You're taking one lump of coal and turning it into two lumps of oil," said Joseph Romm, a physicist, former top Energy Department official, and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research and advocacy organization. "And if you capture the carbon dioxide from one of the lumps, you're still left with the other lump."

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.