Word: fossils
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...first glance, the 4-ft.-long, buff-colored fossilized log that Behunin discovered seemed not at all remarkable. It lay in a countryside of desert valleys in central Utah that 150 million years ago was a lush tropical shore along an inland sea, inhabited by huge flesh-eating dinosaurs. The area has thus yielded a rich supply of plant and animal fossils. Examining a specimen of the fossil under a microscope, Paleobotanist William D. Tidwell of Brigham Young University recognized the unmistakable cellular structure of the palm...
...Acute Phase. The fossil-fuel shortage, warns Chairman John N. Nassakis of the Federal Power Commission, is "the most acute phase of our developing energy crisis." The problem is complicated in some areas by inadequate generating facilities and a lack of pipelines and power grids to carry gas and electricity to industrial centers. "Never before in peacetime have we faced such serious and widespread shortages of energy," says John Emerson, an economist and power expert for Chase Manhattan Bank. Many analysts believe the problems will be temporary, but some maintain that the energy gap may limit economic growth for years...
Then reality intervened. For one thing, nuclear plants turned out to be less efficient and trouble-free than those run by fossil fuels (coal, oil). For another, utilities did not foresee the steep rise in the cost of money-and "nukes" (nuclear plants) are especially expensive to build. In addition, cooling towers required to control thermal pollution will boost the average plant's cost from $150 per kilowatt of capacity to $175. All these pressures caused utilities to cut down on their orders for nukes, from 31 in 1967 to seven...
...problem, equipment manufacturers were held up by strikes and shortages of skilled labor. When the Federal Power Commission surveyed 85 large steam-generating units installed in 1966-68, it found that 55 had been delayed for one reason or another. As a result, lead time for getting a new fossil-fuel plant on the line has been lengthened from four to six years. Nuclear plants are now expected to take seven rather than five years...
...recent Federal Water Quality Administration edict against thermal pollution, if strictly enforced, could reduce power production by plants using fossil fuel (oil, coal) and force utility companies to start costly redesign of water-cooling systems...