Word: coal
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...coal will be one of the saving alternatives to oil as an energy source, and the easiest way to meet the nation's rising coal needs is to strip-mine. But strip mining - ripping off a top layer of earth to get at the coal underground - has done so much damage in the past that it is a prime target for environmentalists...
Half of U.S. coal output already comes from surface mines, and energy companies have taken leases on large chunks of the huge unexploited coal reserves of the West, where low-sulfur coal lies close to the surface. But with 1,000 chewed-up acres being added each week to the existing 2.5 million acres of strip-mined land, Congress is finally acting to make sure that coal producers do not create another ravaged Appalachia...
...more than two years of wrangling and delay, the House of Representatives last week passed a compromise bill that would set up a new agency to regulate strip mining. Backed by Russell Train, Environmental Protection Agency chief, but opposed by the Interior Department, the Federal Energy Administration and the coal industry, the bill passed by a top-heavy pro-environment vote of 291 to 81. It now goes to a House-Senate conference for meshing with an even tougher Senate bill, which was passed last October...
...House measure sets new fed eral standards for the "regrading and re-vegetating" of stripped land, and also for the preservation of water tables (removal of the coal can divert underground streams and deprive neighboring farmers and ranchers of precious water). The bill also provides funding for restoration of previously mined land...
...Future. Bad as things looked, the future looks even worse. The 500,000-member Communications Workers of America turned down an offer by the Bell Telephone System of a 10% pay increase and authorized union locals to take a strike vote. In the vital coal industry, the opening salvos were fired in what seemed likely to become an all-out offensive by the United Mine Workers. The union briefly threatened to stage a nationwide work stoppage to pressure a subsidiary of North Carolina's Duke Power Co., which is resisting U.M.W. efforts to organize its workers...