GoghGoner » Thu 25 Jun 2015, 12:12:39 One plant never got off the ground in Indiana and the other is producing very little energy so far. The other plant in the USA is down in Mississippi and is just getting running after major budget overages. Are large-scale coal gasification projects worth all the expense? “If somebody makes a breakthrough technology it may be worthwhile, but so far it hasn’t made much financial sense,” said Dan Kish, senior vice president of policy at the Institute for Energy Research, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that advocates for free-market solutions to energy issues. “Coal gasification is not new. It’s been around at least 30 years,” said Alison Kerester, executive director at the Gasification Technologies Council, which advocates for the industry. “What’s new with Duke and Kemper is the scale … Anytime you’re going to scale up like that, you inevitably are going to have issues that come up during construction and initial operation that need to be resolved.”