Word: coal
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...located in "sparsely populated areas" from which the electricity would be transported to large urban and industrial centers. Their reasoning was simple: one, sparsely populated rural communities rarely have strictly enforced environmental regulations, especially if there has been little prior industrialization, and two, environmental and health hazards associated with coal- and nuclear-fired power plants would affect a smaller population...
...southwestern United States is a "blueprint" for this policy. Four of the country's ten largest coal stripmines, surrounded by five of the largest coal-fired power plants, are located in the Four Corners area, where Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico come together. Most of this land is owned by the Navajo Nation, which exports electricity through high-voltage power lines to metropolitan centers of New Mexico, Arizona Nevada, Utah and southern California. "The annual output is enough to supply the needs of the state of New Mexico for 32 years," according to Navjo tribal chairman Peper MacDonald...
...centralized energy grid is a plague to dairy farmers of west central Minnesota. As George Crocker of the General Assembly to Stop the Power Line (GASP) puts it, "Starting almost a decade ago, the industry started to get ideas about the western coal front. As soon as the plans materialized, the people started fighting a struggle, which has taken many forms for almost eight years...
During the late 60s, oil companies and coal producers (many of the same corporations) began to realize that America's continued industrial development was going to run up against hard times in eastern labor-intensive underground coal mines--where almost 400 years' worth of coal remains. Instead, companies looked eagerly towards the "Great American Coal Basin"--the western United States. There the coal lies close to the surface and high production with minimal labor costs is the name of the game...
...North American Coal Company is the second largest independent (not owned by oil companies) mining company in the United States, a leader in eastern underground coal mines," Crocker continues." So the company began looking for a way to get into western coal land, talking to the United Power Association and the Cooperative Power Association, two small utilities based in Minnesota. An agreement was made--the North American Coal Company would produce the coal and the utilities would transport and distribute the electricity...