Oct. 9--An Anchorage Native corporation said Friday it aims to build a new electric power plant on the west side of Cook Inlet -- using coal instead of the region's dwindling natural gas supply.

The project would rely on an emerging but proven technology to tap the energy content of coal without mining it. Hundreds of feet underground, the coal would be transformed into gas, according to officials from Cook Inlet Region Inc., which owns several hundred thousand acres in the vast Beluga coal fields.

The entire development, about 20 miles north of Tyonek, could cost $280 million, using the company's rough estimates. CIRI plans to build it with private financing.

As described by CIRI, the project would be a massive win-win -- its dormant coal fields would be tapped for energy without the environmental consequences of traditional coal mining, the region would get a new source of electricity, the pressure on local natural gas supplies would be eased and more oil might even be squeezed from Cook Inlet's aging oil fields.

CIRI's project would involve drilling wells into buried coal seams, then injecting compressed air into the wells, causing the coal to combust and create gas. CIRI would then convert the gas into electricity at its new 100-megawatt power plant and sell the power to buyers in the region, such as utilities. In the future, the CIRI project or similar projects in other coal fields could be used to produce additional gas for heating or export outside of Alaska, CIRI said.

If the project is feasible and obtains regulatory approval, CIRI hopes to start producing gas in 2014. If the company can meet that aggressive timeline, CIRI's would be the first "underground coal gasification" (UCG) plant in the country, said Ethan Schutt, the company's senior vice president for land and energy development.

UCG plants have been built in Australia, South Africa and Eastern Europe. In North America, UCG projects are also planned in Wyoming and Canada.

CIRI said it is working with some organizations that have spearheaded the worldwide projects: its technology adviser is the federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which has been involved in UCG since the 1970s; its tentative business partner is Laurus Energy, a Canadian firm involved in UCG projects in Alberta and Nova Scotia.

VAST COAL

Alaska's coal is largely undeveloped but its quantities are vast: the state contains about one-sixth of the world's coal resource, state officials say.