Clean Energy Snake Oil in Mingo County

By Tyler Cannon, WV CAG Climate Alliance Coordinator

Community members attend an informational meeting at the Larry Joe Harless Community Center in Mingo County, June 2024.

A New York-based company with a history of failed energy projects is proposing to build the world’s largest ammonia plant in Mingo County. Operating under the name Adams Fork Energy, LLC, the company is marketing this project as a “clean energy” initiative and seeking to finance it through federal clean energy subsidies.

This proposal is known as blue ammonia, an ammonia plant that uses natural gas as feedstock and incorporates experimental carbon capture and storage in their manufacturing. This plant stands to release 12.7 million metric tons of CO2 annually, making it the dirtiest of the 10 dirtiest petrochemical megaproject proposals in the country.

This is a grave threat to all of us, especially the people of Gilbert and the surrounding communities. The Wharncliffe Census District is in the 95th percentile for respiratory disease, including black lung, COPD, and asthma, amongst other conditions.

Complicating matters further, Adams Fork aims to bankroll its project with federal subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act, the clean hydrogen tax credits and carbon capture credits. These would be direct IRS payments to the operator. They will also pursue tax credits for abating methane emissions using coalbed methane to supplement natural gas feedstock.

All of this risks our future, especially the future of the communities around this site, and they dare to say that this is our solution to climate change? We know a false solution when we see one.

While the threat is grave, community members are spreading awareness and beginning to mobilize. Adams Fork claims that they have already broken ground, which we know isn’t accurate. We’ve conducted local canvassing campaigns and organized a community meeting with 70 attendees. We’re planning more outreach efforts with community members and affiliated organizations—stay tuned for upcoming actions and ways to get involved. 

Meanwhile, CNX, once a partner in Adams Fork, withdrew their participation in this project. When Adams Fork withdrew from the broader ARCH2 partnership, CNX remained. CNX has since announced that they intend to build an ammonia plant without revealing a location beyond “Southern West Virginia.” 

We have a burgeoning ammonia problem that will treat our lives with the same disregard as its industrial predecessors, and it will take all of us to demand a better future for our state, with the communities they are to be sited in at the front.

Contact me at tyler@wvcag.org to connect and learn more about this issue. If you know of anyone in Mingo, Logan, or Wyoming counties that would be concerned about this issue, please connect us.