May 10, 2011 6:14 a.m.
The Business Journal
By Dan O’Brien
SALEM, Ohio — There’s no resolution but the CEO of the Columbiana County Port Authority says he is encouraged that Baard Energy and one of the financiers backing a potential $6 billion coal-to-fuel project are once again on speaking terms.
“At least they’re talking to one another,” Tracy Drake said Monday after he gave attendees at a business summit here an update on the project. Drake said he learned Friday that Baard Energy and Planck Trading, Boca Raton, Fla., are once again trying to negotiate a settlement so they can move forward with construction of a $6 billion coal liquefaction plant in Wellsville.
The Business Journal reported April 26 (READ STORY) that Planck ceased financing to acquire the land needed for the project until an agreement was reached with Vancouver, Wash.-based Ohio River Clean Fuels, a subsidiary of Baard Energy,
“This thing’s gone through many lives and deaths,” Drake said. “As of Friday, it looks as if it’s back on again.”
Planck signed a memorandum of agreement on Baard’s behalf with the Port Authority in October 2010, and has since purchased 275 of the 522 acres needed for the project. About $4 million worth of land is still required for the development.
The port authority, on Planck’s request, has allowed the purchase options on the land to expire. Drake has said that should the project not move forward, the land would be a valuable development site for another project.
Drake also said the port authority is working on another large-scale effort that could turn out to be a $2 billion project involving ethanol and shale drilling, though he declined to provide any additional details. “It’s a potential new plant, a $2 billion initiative,” he said.
And Drake pointed to the possibility of luring a new information technology operation to East Liverpool. “It could bring about 300 jobs,” he reported.
See article here.
Comments are closed.