$7 B Coal to Liquids Plant to be Built on Crow Land

The legislature for the Crow American Indian tribe has ratified a contract to build a $7 billion plant for coal to liquids (CTL) production. The American Indian tribe stands to earn 50% of profits after investor payoffs.

The Many Stars coal-to-liquids plant initially would produce 50,000 barrels a day of diesel and other fuels. Construction would begin in several years and coal for the project would come from a mine yet to be developed by the tribe on the reservation, Crow leaders said.

The tribe's chairman, Carl Venne, said the coal-to-liquids project offered an unprecedented chance at improving the lives of the tribe's 12,000 members. The agreement calls for the Crow to receive up to 50 percent of profits from the plant after investors in the project recoup their costs.

"It means we will become self sufficient as a tribe," Venne said. "I won't need no more federal dollars. I won't need no more state dollars."

Total proceeds to the tribe could eventually top $1 billion annually — a breathtaking sum that dwarfs the Crow's current annual budget of about $26 million....

...The Crow reservation sits atop some of the nation's largest coal reserves — an estimated 9 billion tons of recoverable resources. Yet only limited mining has occurred, and the tribe's economy remains hobbled by high rates of poverty and unemployment. _AP

The Crow tribe is clearly more forward looking in its approach to energy resources than Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and the rest of the pathetic Luddites in a "let them eat cake" congress.

It is unclear what will have to be done to deal with Pelosi and the other energy obstructionists intent on reducing the US economy to the status of third world hovel. But whatever is eventually done, the longer it is delayed, the less Pelosi and her band of stone age warlords and nobles will like it.