City sees no risk
Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
The Newcastle City Council voted to draft a letter of support for EcoTech Fuels LLC to the Wyoming Energy Commission following a presentation from the company’s president, Linda-Rose Myers, on July 6.
The privately owned renewable fuels company’s interest in developing the Black Hills Advanced Synfuels LLC at the old saw mill located outside of Newcastle sparked great interest among the public, with people both for and against the venture attending both the City Council meeting and the Weston County Commission’s meeting that day.
After the presentation and a brief public comment period, the council voted to support the venture, citing no risk for the city, county or state. Individuals against the venture expressed concerns about the sustainability of the project, other projects pursued by the company that never came to fruition and the unpredictability of the federal government’s access to land and materials.
The proposed project would take dead trees from the Black Hills and other area forests and turn them into advanced synthetic sustainable aviation fuel and diesel.
“The point of doing the project is to reduce the incidence of catastrophic fires in the Rocky Mountain area forests, by removing dead and diseased wood, slash piles and other pre-commercial thinning,” Myers said. “That’s why we have the support of both the Black Hills National Forest Service and Region 2 of the Rocky Mountains. The National Forest Service hopes we will do similar projects in my home state of Colorado, in Montana and elsewhere in the area.”
EcoTech’s team of experts, according to information provided by Myers, has the field-proven capability for converting biological and carbonaceous waste materials, including woody biomass, into advanced synthetic fuels.
The local project, Black Hills Advance Synfuels, would convert 500 tons per day of fire-prone diseased and dead woody biomass from the Black Hills National Forest into 1,150 barrels per day of advanced synthetic SAF or diesel.
The plant would produce 16 million gallons of product per year with the capability of producing either ≤1 ppm sulfur synthetic diesel or SAF. Due to expected demand, the company anticipates producing primarily SAF via the Fischer-Tropsch engineering process, and a major jet fuel supplier has offered a letter of intent to purchase all fuel produced by the plant.
Total costs for the project are estimated at $389 million.
“The project will create at least 80 jobs, plus construction. Because of the high jobs multiplier impact of a project like this, many more jobs will be created in Wyoming to support the plant,” Myers told the News Letter Journal.
The potential jobs created include chemical engineers, skilled labor and entry-level work.
Supporters of the project, including County Commissioner Don Taylor, City Councilman Don Steveson and Newcastle Mayor Pam Gualtieri, stated that the risk to local governments and the state are nonexistent and that concerns about sustainability are valid for any new business venture.
“Every business that we start in the community has a risk for failure,” Taylor said during the council meeting.
“If we do nothing, we are going to get nothing. We can make all the excuses that we want but if we do nothing, … if we don’t take any risks, there is no gain,” he continued.
Steveson added that his desire to see growth in the community leads him to support the project.
After the discussion, the council voted to offer a letter of support for EcoTech Fuels. The letter, according to Gualtieri, involves no commitment or risk for Newcastle and only states that the community supports the company’s pursuit of an industrial revenue bond.
Earlier that day, the Board of Weston County Commissioners had a similar discussion regarding the project but made no decision on supporting the project. A public Zoom meeting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on July 20 during the next commission meeting to further discuss the proposed venture.