Word: coal
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American Electric Power, a big utility holding company that also owns coal mines, has built tremendous smokestacks that tower 1,000 ft. over some of its power plants. When noxious sulfur dioxides are discharged at that altitude, the gases become so mixed with clean air that after they finally descend to the level at which people breathe, the sulfur is too diluted to be harmful. Sulfur can also be removed from coal smoke by special chemical catalysts called "scrubbers" before the smoke goes up the stack. Trouble is, the scrubbers are expensive-the Tennessee Valley Authority is spending $50 million...
...more promising technique captures the sulfur as the coal is burning in a special furnace. Developed by Michael Pope, a New York consulting engineer, this "fluidized bed combustion" system will soon be tested by the federal Energy Research and Development Administration at a power plant in Rivesville, W. Va. Early experiments show that the new furnace not only causes coal to burn more efficiently, but also actually converts the sulfur into a useful soil enrichener...
Promised Land. Meanwhile, the mining companies' search for clean coal is leading to a vast new promised land -the West. The industry has long known about the immense coal reserves between Arizona and Montana. But few operators chose to mine the deposits, mainly because the coal was too far from the biggest markets. Yet after 1970, the Western coal began to exert a powerful new appeal for the simple reason that it has a low sulfur content...
...more the coal industry investigated the Western reserves, the more it liked what it found. Some of the coal lies in gigantic, 100-ft.-thick seams close to the surface. All a coal company must do is strip off the topsoil and gouge up the mineral. Mining cost per ton: a mere $3. Even after transportation costs to the East are figured in, the coal can compete in price with that of Appalachia...
...result, the industry has drawn up exceedingly ambitious plans for developing the West. The Northern Great Plains alone is expected to produce 977 million tons annually by the end of this century. At that time, the region should have 64 mines exporting coal, 25 new coal-fired electric power plants and 41 plants to convert coal into natural gas. In the Four Corners area where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet, another 14 generating stations are planned to burn coal from nearby mines. Four are already built, sending electricity by wire to consumers as distant as Los Angeles...