ERP Compliant Fuels hopes to sell its first train of Central Appalachian coal with attached carbon credits this month, a company official said Monday.
Tom Clarke of the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund, ERP's nonprofit parent, said although the new producer has yet to sell any compliant coal, it is "very focused" on striking a deal for a shipment in the next few weeks.
"We're doing everything we can to make that happen this month," Clarke said.
ERP last Tuesday closed on its bankruptcy court-approved deal with Patriot Coal to take over the latter's Federal and Corridor G mining Complexes in West Virginia and the rights to about 150 mining permits belonging to shuttered and yet-to-be mined sites.
A day after closing the deal with Patriot, Clarke said he and ERP representatives were already giving presentations to coal industry players about the plans for the company and the future of compliant-fuel coal.
ERP's plan is to idle production at the higher-cost Corridor G complex and bundle coal from Federal with carbon credits earned through reforestation.
The compliant coal will be sold at a premium to utilities that will utilize the attached credits to potentially offset carbon limits set forth in the EPA's Clean Power Plan.
Clarke said he has been in talks with multiple Appalachian states as they prepare to compose their plans to meet the carbon emissions standards outlined by the Clean Power Plan. He has also spoken with multiple utilities, including Duke Energy, about prospects of buying the compliant coal.
"It's safe to say there is much interest in the prospect of compliant fuels," Clarke said.
