Hopi bio-diesel fuel project

KYKOTSMOVI -- On May 26, Hopi Tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr. and Headwaters Corp. executives met with U.S. Energy Department officials in Washington, D.C. to discuss possible funding for a bio-diesel production facility on the Hopi Reservation.

The Hopi Tribal Council is near agreement with a Utah energy company in a joint venture to explore the possibility of building a coal liquefaction plant and an electric generating plant on ranch lands owned by the tribe. The liquefaction plant would use Hopi coal to manufacture high-quality, low-emission diesel fuels.

"We want to brief Energy Department officials on the proposed MOU (memorandum of understanding) with Headwaters and find out what, if any funding might be available for clean coal technology projects on Indian lands," said Kevin Ring, an attorney for Barnes & Thornburg and Hopi's Capitol Hill lobbyist.

The tribe has been in discussions with Headwaters since October 2004. Headwaters is the nation's largest provider of technology used to produce coal based solid synthetic fuels and is an industry leader in managing coal combustion products.

A Hopi/Headwaters liquefaction plant would use Hopi coal as the base ingredient in producing high-quality diesel fuel, now in heavy demand with soaring worldwide crude oil prices. The Headwaters technology can be used to produce many different products in addition to diesel fuels, including detergents, lube oils, plastics, waxes and electricity.

The meeting with Scott Mattox, acting assistant secretary for fossil energy for the U.S. Energy Department, was followed by a meeting with staffers with the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

John Baird, corporate counsel for Headwaters, and John Ward, vice president for marketing and government relations, also attended the meetings. The chairman and Headwaters officials also met later in the day with U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.

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