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Home > Blogs > Middletown News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > June > 09 > Entry
Others are interested in SunCoke plant
Although there are some people in the area who are not in favor of SunCoke Energy building its proposed $350 million coke-making and electric generation plant between Ohio 4 and Yankee Road, there’s one county official in Kentucky who is become very proactive in getting SunCoke’s attention.
In the past few weeks, Judge Executive Wayne Rutherford of Pike County, Ky., spent a couple of days with SunCoke officials at their Knoxville, Tenn., headquarters.
Rutherford said Pike County, located in eastern Kentucky along the West Virginia and Virginia borders, is seeking to be the “energy capital of America.”
He said his county has more than 120 billion tons of recoverable coal and also has more than 6,000 natural gas wells. In addition, Rutherford said the county is expecting a report back at the end of June from a $1 million study on transforming coal to a liquid fuel source.
“They (SunCoke) didn’t know about us until I showed up on their doorstep,” he said. “They’re interested due to transportation costs. We wanted to be on their radar screen for the future.”
Rutherford said the county is developing an Energy Research Center in Pike County that includes a consortium of research institutions such as the University of Kentucky, Ohio State, Penn State, Virginia Tech and West Virginia University. In addition, the county is working with Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus as well as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“They (SunCoke) didn’t know about us until I showed up on their doorstep,” he said. “They’re interested due to transportation costs. We wanted to be on their radar screen for the future.”
Rutherford said the county is developing an Energy Research Center in Pike County that includes a consortium of research institutions such as the University of Kentucky, Ohio State, Penn State, Virginia Tech and West Virginia University. In addition, the county is working with Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus as well as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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