Officials and Ryan should help project

Baard Energy and the Columbiana County Port Authority need more time to create one of the largest economic development projects in the world. President Barack Obama appears to be working against them.

Baard wants to turn 590 acres along the Ohio River in Columbiana and Jefferson counties into a $6 billion coal gasification production facility. The Ohio Department of Development granted the port authority an extension on the closing date of a $4.5 million loan so it could purchase the land for the project.

The extension gives Baard more time to gather funding it needs to complete the project, which would generate 200 permanent jobs of around $24 per hour and enough temporary construction jobs that the impact would be felt in Trumbull County.

Obama made it clear after Congress handed him a victory on health care that he would move next to climate change legislation. He has done just that, using the ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster to bolster his argument.

Never mind that keeping deepwater offshore gas wells from blowing out and causing environmental disasters has little or nothing to do with the coal industry. Obama sees public anger at one energy company, British Petroleum, as a club he can use against other energy companies.

Obama met with members of Congress to urge them to proceed with climate change legislation. No doubt one argument made discreetly, of course, was that if Congress does not approve Obama's proposal, he will implement it anyway through the Environmental Protection Agency.

That need not happen. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has proposed the Senate order the EPA to hold off on implementing its own greenhouse gas limits for two years. It appears there may be enough Senate votes to approve the Rockefeller measure.

The House of Representatives approved a climate change bill last year but it died in the Senate. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who supports such legislation, said that a new proposal still does not have enough votes for passage.

We urge senators representing states dependent on the coal industry and low-priced electricity generated from coal to keep it that way. It's unclear whether Obama would target coal gasification, considered clean coal technology, but the Union of Concerned Scientists, which supports sweeping climate legislation, says there is no such thing as ''clean coal.''

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, could make a difference in Baard's future. One factor that could help the company secure funding for the Columbiana County project and at the same time increase the viability of the U.S. Air Reserve Station in Vienna, would be a military commitment to use the gas from coal in a long-term experiment. This could be a natural fit for Ryan's position on the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and his declared support for the Vienna station.