Word: coal
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...deep mines has dropped from a high of 15.6 tons daily per man in 1969 to 10.7 tons today. One reason: the Government's tough safety rules, which have cut mining efficiency. The industry has also been plagued in the past two years by hundreds of wildcat strikes. Coal executives say the stoppages prove that United Mine Workers President Arnold Miller is not as good a leader as he is a negotiator. In 1974 he won his union (current membership: 135,000) a healthy contract-the average wage is $50 a day before overtime-but he still cannot keep...
Boosting deep-mine productivity is only one problem. To open a new mine requires heavy capital expenses-on average, $35 in investment for each ton of annual capacity-that can be recouped only over many years. Says John Paul, a vice president of AMAX: "Coal mines are not water spigots. You don't just open a tap and turn them on." To justify the expense, coal men need a guaranteed market-and for that potential buyers have to have some assurance that the fuel can be burned in compliance with clean-air laws...
Giant Stacks. The trouble has been intensified by conflicting Government views of the national interest. President Ford puts primary emphasis on developing plentiful, inexpensive domestic energy to power the U.S. economy. Congress mainly stresses protection of the environment. Coal offers no easy compromise: it is extremely difficult to make both cheap and clean...
...when Congress passed amendments to the Clean Air Act, one of the provisions forbade the burning of fuels with a high sulfur content in the most populous parts of the country. Since at the time nearly 80% of U.S. coal production did not meet the standards, many electric utilities-coal's biggest steady customer-switched to oil. Industry efforts to get Congress to soften the law failed. Finally, in 1974, the Federal Energy Administration, seeking to save oil, ordered 25 utilities to switch back to coal in 74 plants. So far only one power plant has actually made that...
Last year President Ford asked Congress to amend the act so that higher-sulfur coal could be legally burned. The Senate responded by writing a new bill that would actually tighten the standards further. Meanwhile, the coal and utility industries have embarked on several new ways to satisfy...