For years now, calls for energy independence have permeated our discussions. People yearn for freedom from the grips of OPEC. First American International LLC, a company that operates on the Navajo Nation in northwest New Mexico, near Gallup, may have the answer: Turn the nation’s seemingly endless coal reserves into oil with virtually no environmental impact. Coal-to-oil refining is not a new concept. In 1925, German scientists Professor Franz Fischer and Dr. Hans Tropsch patented what would become known as the Fischer-Tropsch process. It was widely used by the Germans during World War II, accounting for nearly 10 percent of their total fuels and 25 percent of their automobile fuels. However, while other companies are exploring how to make the extremely inefficient, expensive and environmentally terrifying Fischer–Tropsch process economically viable, with capital investment needs from $500-600 million, to $4-5 billion and several years before significant returns are gained, First Investment is promoting a new process, patented by American engineer Harold Bennett. Unlike Fischer-Tropsch, the Bennett process creates a self-contained refinery that turns coal almost wholly into petroleum and char. The char is clean burning and can be utilized by power plants to meet all EPA standards or it can be further refined into metallurgical coke to be used in the steel industry. It operates on low heat and low pressure unlike Fischer-Tropsch. There are no harmful emissions with the Bennett process and it is more than 99-percent efficient, according to independent scientific reports and studies. Moreover, the capital investment needed is only $50 million to be gained back in a very short period of time. “People hear this and they think it’s not possible, but it is and it works,” says First American Managing Partner Dennis Yellowhorse Jones, who has seen the function of a prototype Bennett model in Albuquerque, N.M. “This is an amazing process that should attract people’s attention.” Yellowhorse Jones, a general contractor and geologist, has spent a large part of his life researching and selling environmentally friendly minerals and technologies. The Bennett process, once operational, will also be a huge uplift for the Navajo Nation, creating jobs in the community that faces 40-percent unemployment but has some of the largest coal reserves in the U.S. Furthermore, First American has also brokered a five-year, no-cost land lease for the proposed facility, located right off Interstate 40, with prime access to railroad distribution, as well. With its nearly endless supply of raw materials and premier location, the first facility will process 800,000 tons of coal each year. And the infrastructure, i.e., a building to house the refinery, already exists. Additional facilities and expansion will follow once the initial facility is operating at capacity. As crude oil and gasoline prices continue their upward climb, Yellowhorse Jones and First American expect the factory to be a win-win for all. The general public will have fewer environmental concerns as emissions are reduced and fuel prices are eased by the new source.