Government officials in states across the nation believe that the path to a country that relies less on foreign oil rests in the coal beneath their feet, and many of them are scrambling to make that future happen as soon as possible.

Last month, Gov. Joe Manchin and the state’s congressional delegation announced that two companies — CONSOL Energy and Synthesis Energy Systems — plan to build the nation’s first modern coal-to-liquids plant in Marshall County. Once completed, the plant will produce about 720,000 metric tons of methanol a year, which can be converted into 100 million gallons of 87 octane gasoline.

What state officials didn’t say at the time was that to entice the two companies to build in West Virginia, the state’s Economic Development Office offered the companies roughly $200 million in tax breaks and infrastructure improvements.

None of the tax breaks are guaranteed and none of them apply specifically to coal-to-liquid projects. Other companies have applied for and received the same tax incentives in the past. And West Virginia’s incentives pale in comparison to what some other states have done in what has become a race to build the nation’s first coal-to-liquids plant.

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