U.S. Closes $1.5 Billion Loan for Coal-Fired Fertilizer Plant

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. Energy Department said on Wednesday it closed a $1.5 billion loan to Wabash Valley Resources, LLC for an Indiana fertilizer plant that will now be fired by coal.

The project will restart a coal gasification plant idled since 2016 and modify it to produce 500,000 metric tons of anhydrous ammonia per year fueled by coal from a nearby mine and petcoke, a byproduct of oil refining, as feedstock, the department said.

The loan aligns with a Trump administration policy to support coal, an industry that has shrunk in recent years due to competition from natural gas and renewable energy.

The loan was initiated during the administration of former President Joe Biden, when the project was designed to be fired by petcoke only and to store the carbon dioxide emissions from the plant permanently underground in an old coal mine in an attempt to curb climate change.

The emissions will no longer be captured and stored.

“For too long, America has been dependent on foreign sources of fertilizer,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are changing that by putting America first, relying on American coal, American workers, and American innovation to power our farms and feed our families.”

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Leslie Adler and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)