RAWLINS -- From concept and siting, an effort to build one of the nation's first coal-to-liquids plants in Wyoming will soon move to the permitting and design stage.

Medicine Bow Fuel & Power LLC recently awarded a contract to Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin to perform feasibility, engineering and design services for a $1 billion facility located in northern Carbon County.

"It's really a good thing for Carbon County and surrounding areas, because in the long run we're looking at 300 to 500 full-time, high-tech professional jobs in mining and refining, as well as related construction activity for a number of years,'' said Robert Kelly.

Kelly is a senior executive of both Medicine Bow Fuel & Power and its parent company, Houston-based DKRW Energy LLC. The contract with SNC-Lavalin includes two coal-to-liquids plants for DKRW -- the first being Medicine Bow located at Arch Coal's Hanna mine facility in Carbon County. Kelly said securing the engineering firm was important because such services are in high demand with intense international construction.

Also involved in the project are GE Energy and Rentech Clean Energy Solutions, which will provide the technical process for converting coal to liquid hydrocarbons. Arch Coal, which is already a major coal producer in Wyoming, will provide the coal.

Plans are for initial production at 11,000 barrels per day of liquid hydrocarbons, 85 percent of which would be ultra-low-sulfur diesel sold as a consumer transportation fuel in the Rocky Mountain Region.

"We have enough (coal) reserves there (at the Medicine Bow location) to expand production to about 33,000 barrels per day of petroleum product,'' Kelly said. "One thing the U.S. needs right now is domestic hydrocarbons, and we're going to make it out of coal and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.''

Carbon County School District 2 is under pressure from the state's School Facilities Commission to close elementary schools in Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain and consolidate them into a K-12 operation in Hanna. Parents and local school officials say they want to keep those schools open because industrial development such as the Medicine Bow Fuel & Power project will revive those communities.

"I'm asking the School Facilities Commission to just give us some time -- a lot of things are happening. Just give us two, three years to see what the economy brings,'' said Robert Gates, Carbon County School District 2 superintendent.

The district plans to conduct public meetings on the matter later this month.