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March 2018 www.coalage.com 11 news continued Indiana Legislation May Resolve Local Dispute Over Liberty Mine Expansion A planned expansion at an Indiana surface mine that is drawing fire from some residents could be a catalyst for a change in state law that prevents local governments from passing ordinances re- stricting landowners from mining. In late February, the Republican-controlled Senate Committee on Natural Resources in the Indiana General Assembly was review- ing House Bill 1289, which won overwhelming approval in the state House of Representatives earlier this year. The GOP also holds a majority in the House and Gov. Eric Holcomb is a Republican. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources' Division of Reclamation in January approved White Stallion Energy's appli- cation for a 3,516-acre extension/expansion of its Liberty steam coal surface mine north of Boonville, the Warrick County seat. Warrick County has been a leading coal mining county in the Hoosier state for years, and mining generally is not overly contro- versial in the area. But last fall, the Boonville City Council enacted an ordinance limiting mining to no closer than three miles of the city limits. U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa, which owns the Liberty coal reserves mined by White Stallion, recently filed a lawsuit in Warrick Coun- ty Circuit Court to overturn the ordinance, claiming it conflicts with current state law. Efforts so far by Alcoa and a Boonville homeowners association to negotiate an out-of-court settlement have been unsuccessful. Alcoa is in the process of restarting three of five alumi- num-making potlines at its long-idled smelter at the sprawling Warrick Operations near Yankeetown in the southern part of the county. A nearby Alcoa-owned power plant burns coal to generate electricity for the smelter and existing aluminum rolling mill. Even though the Liberty permit has been issued, state permit officials were awaiting the advice of division attorneys as to wheth- er it should be officially issued before the legal dispute is resolved. Under the extended permit, Liberty is expected to produce approximately 1.7 million tons of steam coal annually or more for at least the next several years. The mine produced 1.4 million tons in 2017 and 1.14 million tons in 2016. Although H.B. 1289 did not originally focus on the Liber- ty mine dispute, Republican State Rep. Ron Bacon, who is from Boonville and is a supporter of aluminum and mining jobs, has become a co-sponsor of the legislation. An Alcoa spokesman said his company was not involved in the filing of the bill, but backs the legislation. Future of Foresight Energy's Deer Run Longwall Mine Remains Unclear Foresight Energy's Deer Run longwall steam coal mine near Hill- sboro in Montgomery County, Illinois, soon will have been idle for three years, and it is unclear if and when the mine will resume production. But the St. Louis-based company, now owned by Ohio's Mur- ray Energy Corp., has received approval from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to perform any work at Deer Run that does not result in actual mining. Gary Broadbent, Murray senior corporate counsel and direc- tor of investor and media relations for Murray/Foresight, declined to comment in February on what actions, if any, are being taken at Deer Run and whether the mine will start up again in 2018. Deer Run, also known as Hillsboro and was operated by Pat- ton Mining LLC, was ordered to shut down by MSHA on March 26, 2015, after elevated levels of carbon monoxide were detected. The elevated CO readings, believed to originate from a hard-to-get-to underground hotspot or fire, continued to bedevil the company for most of the next two years. Deer Run, which had produced 5.5 million tons of coal in 2014, operated only sporadically in 2015, turning out about 1.87 million tons of coal. The mine produced no coal in 2016, 2017 and through the first two months of 2018. In Illinois, Foresight also operates the Sugar Camp Energy mining complex in Franklin County, containing the MC No. 1 and Viking longwall mines; Williamson Energy in Williamson County, containing the Mach No. 1 longwall and continuous miner oper- ation; and Macoupin Energy's Shay No. 1 continuous miner oper- ation in Macoupin County. Battelle Leads Team to Milestone in Carbon Capture Demo Project Ten years ago, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) set a big goal. It wanted a scientific demonstration of injecting a signifi- cant amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into the rock deep below the earth's surface. Now, a Battelle-led team known as Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) has suc- cessfully stored 1 million metric tons of CO 2 as part of its large- scale demonstration project. This MRCSP demonstration is one of eight such DOE projects helping to develop and deploy carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), an advanced energy technology that can help support a secure, reliable and competi- tive energy system in the U.S. Battelle began the third phase of injection in 2013 and, in conjunction with Core Energy, is monitoring, verifying and ac- counting for the CO 2 being used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the depleted oil fields of Michigan's Northern Reef Trend. The practice of using carbon dioxide to recover oil uses a closed-loop process to access the fossil fuel that would otherwise be left behind, maximizing existing oil fields. One million cumu- lative metric tons of CO 2 stored is equivalent to removing 214,000 passenger vehicles for one year, or the amount stored by 1.2 mil- lion acres of forest in one year, Battelle said. As a result of this CO 2 injection, more than $70 million of economic benefit has been added to the local economy in jobs, goods and services, and taxes, based on the significant volume of oil that has been produced — oil that would otherwise have been left behind. Additionally, there has been significant scientific knowledge gained. The project developed novel approaches for using CO 2 in fields that were in different stages of their production life cycles, from initial flooding to late-stage. The MRCSP tested state-of-the- art techniques to track the CO 2 and quantify the amount that is retained in the formation after the oil is removed. These data can be used to further optimize CO 2 storage and energy production in other areas. MRCSP will continue to collect field operational data and deploy advanced monitoring technologies to characterize and simulate the CO 2 storage, retention and enhanced oil recov- ery processes across the test locations.