Lawmakers Tout North Dakota Coal:

North Dakota’s Congressional delegation has engaged in conversation with the Air Force about taking advantage of the state’s “huge coal resources” for the service’s fledgling alternative jet fuel program. A joint statement from Sen. Kent Conrad (D), Sen. Byron Dorgan (D), and Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D) said that the state has “an 800-year supply of lignite that can be converted to liquid fuel” for jet aircraft. (The Air Force currently is testing coal-derived jet fuel in a B-52 bomber from Minot AFB, N.D.) The legislators also want to interest the Air Force, which is one of the biggest users of green energy, in its “powerful wind energy.”