Originally, West Virginia's "energy independence" plan, drafted by Gov. Manchin and his new energy agencies, called for 10 billion-dollar coal-to-liquid plants across the Mountain State. The latest version of the master plan envisions just five of the plants.

But there's a hitch: Converting coal into liquid fuels consumes more energy than the resulting fuels provide.

Vickie Wolfe, lobbyist for the West Virginia Environmental Council, told a Charleston church group Sunday that the standard liquefaction method, the Fischer-Tropsch process, requires, say, 1,000 Btu of energy input for each 500 Btu in the fuel that is created, varying with different types of production.

In other words, power is wasted. More energy exists at the start than in the final outcome.

Further, liquid coal fuels are considerably more polluting than petroleum fuels.

We trust that science someday will find solutions to these technology problems. But until ways are found to reap fuller benefits from coal, we hope state energy planners focus mostly on research, rather than using tax incentives to prod industry into hasty plant construction.

But there's a hitch: Converting coal into liquid fuels consumes more energy than the resulting fuels provide.

Vickie Wolfe, lobbyist for the West Virginia Environmental Council, told a Charleston church group Sunday that the standard liquefaction method, the Fischer-Tropsch process, requires, say, 1,000 Btu of energy input for each 500 Btu in the fuel that is created, varying with different types of production.

In other words, power is wasted. More energy exists at the start than in the final outcome.

Further, liquid coal fuels are considerably more polluting than petroleum fuels.

We trust that science someday will find solutions to these technology problems. But until ways are found to reap fuller benefits from coal, we hope state energy planners focus mostly on research, rather than using tax incentives to prod industry into hasty plant construction.