Word: oils
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...industry is suffering because the Carter Administration's coal policy was never fully thought out. The idea was that increased output would enable utilities and factories to switch from oil and gas to coal for generating electricity and for heating. In terms of energy content, coal is indeed a bargain compared with other fossil fuels. A ton of coal contains about the same amount of energy as 4 bbls. of crude oil, but at the going rate of about $25 a ton for most existing long-term delivery contracts, coal is only half as costly as OPEC crude. Unfortunately...
...seems that the more the oil squeeze tightens, the bigger grows the glut of other fuels that ought to be easing the pinch. First came last winter's natural gas surplus brought on by price decontrol. Now, from West Virginia to Wyoming, miners are burying themselves under millions of tons of stockpiled coal that no one wants...
...Carter Administration has hoped that a doubling of coal output by 1985 would reduce the U.S.'s dependence on foreign oil. But production has risen by only about 10% from last year's strike-depressed level of 654 million tons, and consumption of the fuel has remained stagnant. Coal today supplies about 18% of U.S. energy needs, an increase of less than 1% since 1973, the year of the Arab oil embargo. Meanwhile, mines have closed, expansion plans have been shelved and by industry estimates, up to 10% of the nation's more than 200,000 miners...
During the winter, Energy Secretary James Schlesinger began urging oil-fired utilities and factories to convert not to coal but to natural gas. This was to have been only a short-term move to help soak up the gas glut, but it created the misleading impression that coal was not the Administration's favorite fuel after all. Asserts Jim Larson, president of Energy Fuels Corp., Colorado's largest coal producer: "There is a simple lack of leadership. From where I sit, you just have to wonder what in hell is going on back there in Washington." The industry...
...even successfully sued another quasi-independent federal agency, Conrail, and forced it to stop using a coal-fired generator that produces electricity for commuter trains. The generating plant is being converted at taxpayer expense to burn the very fuel the White House is trying to discourage-imported oil...