AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
And next, a story of business and environmentalists clashing over the pursuit of energy. Most coal in this country is buried too deep for conventional mining. An Australian company working in Wyoming wants to use an unconventional technique to get to that deep coal - burning it underground. Wyoming Public Radio's Stephanie Joyce reports.
STEPHANIE JOYCE, BYLINE: The technique is called underground coal gasification, and the company that wants to use it in Wyoming is Linc Energy. The firm describes the process in a promotional video.
(SOUNDBITE OF LINC ENERGY'S PROMOTIONAL VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: Underground coal gasification, UCG for short, is a process in which coal is converted into synthesis gas while the coal remains deep underground.
JOYCE: Basically it involves drilling holes into coal seams buried as much as a mile underground, and then lighting them on fire and capturing the gases, which can then be converted to fuels like diesel. It's not new technology. It was first pioneered in the late 1800s, and tested in the United States during the oil crisis of the 1970s. But outside of the former Soviet Union, it's never been developed commercially.
PETER WOLD: This technology will open up that 95 percent that surface mining can't get to.
JOYCE: That's Peter Wold. His family sold Linc Energy some of the 180,000 acres of coal it now owns in Wyoming.
WOLD: It creates an opportunity for the United States to be energy independent. The potential here is phenomenal.
JOYCE: For now, Linc Energy is only proposing a test project in Wyoming to demonstrate that the process works and is safe. If it's not done right, burning the coal could contaminate groundwater and create sinkholes.
Linc Energy repeatedly declined to make anyone available for comment, but Nancy Nuttbrock, who directs the state agency that regulates mining, says there's risk with any new technology.
NANCY NUTTBROCK: Obviously, the low-hanging fruit is going to require an easier means of extraction. As we go farther, and we've exhausted those resources that are nearer to the surface, the technology gets trickier.
JOYCE: But Nuttbrock is convinced Linc Energy can burn Wyoming's coal safely.
NUTTBROCK: We thoroughly investigated every aspect until we were comfortable enough to proceed with issuing the license.
JOYCE: The state issued that license in November. The backlash was swift. At a public meeting about the project, nearby landowners felt they had been kept in the dark about the risks to groundwater.
UNIDENTIFIED LANDOWNER 1: Why are we letting them come to our country, and most specifically, to our state to let them - to try and perfect it here?
UNIDENTIFIED LANDOWNER 2: We want some answers. If things go wrong, what it's going to take to fix them, how much money? Where's that coming from?
DAVID CAMP: It's fair to say I'm ambivalent about UCG.
JOYCE: That's David Camp. He directs research into underground coal gasification - UCG - at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Camp says there are upsides like that miners don't have to go underground and that carbon capture is easier than with coal-fired power plants. But he says those need to be weighed against the risks. And he adds that even extremely complicated drilling technologies like deepwater drilling and fracking are easier and more cost-effective than UCG.
CAMP: I really don't see where underground coal gasification, or really gasification in any form, plays in the United States right now.
JOYCE: But not everywhere is as rich in oil and gas as the United States. And Camp says regardless of what happens in Wyoming, it's inevitable that the technology will be used elsewhere.
CAMP: People need energy, and they always want to do whatever is cheapest. It takes regulations and laws to make dirty sources of energy expensive. So without that, coal is going to be used.
JOYCE: In fact, right now there are underground coal gasification test projects underway or planned in a half-dozen other countries including Australia. The government there alleges Linc Energy's test project has caused serious environmental harm, although they haven't released any specifics. As for Wyoming, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to weigh in on the final permitting later this summer.
For NPR News, I'm Stephanie Joyce.