Malmstrom Air Force Base Coal-to-Liquids

In September 2007, the U.S. Air Force announced that it was considering building a large coal-to-liquids plant at Malmstrom Air Force Base. Gov. Schweitzer publicly announced his support for the project. The plant would consume an estimated 20,000 tons of coal and 10 million gallons of water each day, and would produce 20,000-30,000 barrels of fuel each day, 50-100 megawatts of electricity for sale, and 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide to be stored at an undetermined location. Project proponents conducted a public information session on Oct. 3, 2007; on Oct. 2, environmental groups were “uninvited” from the session.

The Pentagon has also contacted Southern Montana Electric – the builders of the Highwood Generating Station – and suggested the possibility of the Malmstrom plant buying power from Highland, rather than producing its own. .

According to the Sierra Club's August 2008 update, the Malmstrom coal plant is on hold due to the new Federal Energy Bill provision barring the government from buying nontraditional petroleum fuels that emit more global warming pollution than conventional oil-based products.

On January 20, 2009, the Air Force Times reported that the Air Force reached a decision whether to go ahead with the Malstrom plant on January 16. Announcement of the decision has been delayed, but is expected soon.

On January 29, 2009, Air Force officials announced that they had rejected construction proposals and would no longer be pursuing development of the large synthetic fuel plant.

Project Details
Sponsor: US Air Force Location: Great Falls, MT Capacity: 300 MW Status: Cancelled

Citizen Groups

 * Citizens for Clean Energy, cce-mt [at] bresnan.net
 * Montana Environmental Information Center, meic [at] meic.org

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Eielson Air Force Base Coal-to-Liquids
 * U.S. Air Force and Coal
 * Montana and coal
 * United States and coal
 * Carbon Capture and Storage
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * US proposed coal plants (both active and cancelled)
 * Coal plants cancelled in 2007
 * Coal plants cancelled in 2008
 * State-by-state guide to information on coal in the United States (or click on the map)