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10
going to have to pay for energy," he
warned.
Costs of mmmg increase, and so do
costs for transporting all this coal. Prof–
its disappear. These and other problems
are beginning to result in actual coal
shortages for utility companies.
T .V.A. Troubles
Tennessee Valley Authority
(T.
V. A.)
is the largest buyer of coal in the
United States. In 1969, it purchased 32
million tons of coa!.
"If
you piled it
up," James Watson, Manager of Power
for
T.
V. A. told PLAIN TRUTH report–
ees, "and put it all on a football field, it
would reach more than .five miles in the
air."
T. V. A. has been receiving only
about 80% of its coa! needs, thus cre–
ating a real pinch. During December,
when we visited T. V. A., it was clown to
a 29-day supply. Most utility companies
have less than about 30 days' supply,
severa! less than two weeks.
Even though the U. S. exports only
lO% of the coa! it mines, domestic
users are complaining this is too much.
In sorne cases they claim coa! companies
have cut short their commitments to
domestic
electric utilities in favor of
FOREIGN CUSTOMERS offering higher
prices. Normally, high quality metal–
lurgical coal is exported to foreign steel
producers. More recently, Japan has
been forced to buy U. S. utility grade
coa! for use with other grades of coal to
make steel.
Coupled with these problems, the
shortage of railroad hopper cars often
halts the flow of coal from the fields
to the power plants. T. V. A.'s James
Watson also commented to us: "We
have a shortage that amounts to some–
thing like 100,000 tons of coal a week
that we could get if we had sufficient
caes.'' Sorne steam plants could run out
of coal this winter if the supply is not
improved.
Sorne train cars have sat in port for
weeks, oc
longer before ships arrived to
take coa! overseas. And the thought of a
railroad workers' strike doesn't exactly
put utilities companies at ease.
Strip Min ing Devastation
Scrambling to mcet market demands
and to cut costs, coa! companies turn to
The
PLAIN TRUTH
the method of
strip mining
to supply
customers.
The strip mining method is perhaps
the most devastating means available
for obtaining coa!. It accounts for one
third of America's 500 million ton
annual output.
Sorne 3.2 million acres in the United
States alone have been toen up by strip
mining. That is roughly equal in size to
the U. S. state of Connecticut, or to
Northern lreland in the British Isles.
And most of this Land -
about
66% - líes barren and unreclaimed,
a monument to man's greed and
destructiveness.
Of the 34% of "reclaimed" land,
half has been rejuvenated
011iy
by forces
of nature, not by the men who devas–
tated it. Reclamation of stripped land is
expensive, and seldom carried out by
the companies who "mine" the coa!.
There are a few notable projects, how–
ever, where companies have leveled the
land, planted trees, stocked artificial
ponds with fish, and made other
amends.
Yet, we can easily understand how
difficult it is to "put it all back like it
was.''
Incompatible With Ecology
Furthermore, the resource being dug
- coal, in this case - pollutes the air
we breathe. Mr. Harry Perry, quoted
earlier, told our staff: ' 'No energy form
is completely compatible with ecology.
Nuclear energy generates thermal pol–
lution. It also has a radioactivity prob–
lem.... Fossil fuels have thc problern
of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur oxides
... and ash."
The burning of coa! creates douds of
sulphur oxide and other pollutants
which engulf cities and destroy health.
Lower-quality coal is Jess desirable
because it pollutes more. This becomes a
serious problem, when wc realize that
two thirds of the coa/ prodt1ced
east of
the Mississippi River will not meet
present pollution standards because it is
too high in sulphur content!
Sorne areas like the city of Chicago
have even rescinded anti-sulphur pollu–
tion laws so that low-grade coa! coulJ
be used. It was either this alternative or
simply
no power!
February
L971
And so modern man charges onward
in the name of Technological Progress.
Oil Problems T oo
Coal and coal-fired furnaces are not
the only trouble. Along the U. S. East–
ern Seaboard, where residual oil powers
many utilities, shortages are occurring
- and prices are on the rise.
New York City is a case in point.
Here electricity prices are highest in the
United States - just $10.00 per 250
kilowatt-hours, compared with Los
Angeles at $5.63 per 250 kilowatt–
hours.
Foreign residual oil must be shipped
long distances to reach U. S. ports, and
prices increase with transportation costs.
The problem of getting oil is further
cornplicated by the fact that 9 out
of 1O wells sunk are dry! Each well
drilled on land in the United States
costs in excess of $50,000. Ten times
that amount is spent for the average
off-shore well, and over $1 million for
thc average Alaskan well!
And - it takes from 3 to 10 years
for a .field to go from initial discovery
to full production.
To be sure, there is NO
present
worldwide oil shortage. There are, in
fact, surpluses.
Nevertheless, America and the west–
ern world continue to suck up and con–
sume oil at an increasing cate.
By 1950, twice as much crude oil was
produced as had been in 1945. By 1960
production doubled again, now 1000
million tons. Eight years later,
tn
1968, it doubled again. Forecasts say it
will AGAIN double, to 4000 million
tons, by 1980.
With only growth in sight, we need
to stop and ask ourselves sorne ques–
tions. How great are total fuel reserves?
Can we really contínue to use up these
resources at an ever-increasing rate?
A Prognosdcation
In 1963, geochernist Harrison Brown,
biochemist James Bonner and psy–
chologist John Weir, published
The
Next Htmdt·ed Years.
In their study,
completed under the auspices of the
California Institute of Technology, cer·
tain estimates were made concerning
various sectors of the world economy.