Coal Yes, Tankers No

While he was mulling over his options in Colorado last week, President Ford did not hesitate to use his veto power to knock down two energy-related bills passed by the outgoing 93rd Congress. Both bills, as Ford saw them, were at cross-purposes with the Administration's goals for dealing with both the energy problem and inflation.

> The most critical of Ford's vetoes was his rejection of a strip-mining bill that the House and Senate had been struggling with for the past two years before coming to an agreement on a compromise version last month. Designed to protect Western states from strip mining, the bill required coal companies to restore mined land to its original contours and use, thereby limiting surface mining to areas where such reclamation was possible. Moreover, the bill would have extracted fees from the coal companies (35-c- per ton for surface mining, 25-c- per ton for underground mining) to finance restoration of the more than 1 million acres torn up by strip miners. One probable effect of the bill would have been the forced closing of a number of marginal surface mines in Appalachia.

Ford refused to sign the bill after arguing that it would have hampered domestic coal production "when the nation can ill afford significant losses from this critical energy source." Though his veto was anticipated, it is sure to be unpopular. The strip-mining bill was supported by environmentalists, Ford's own Interior Department, the AFL-CIO, the United Mine Workers, United Auto Workers and farm and ranch organizations. It was even backed by a few big coal companies that were anxious to have some law--any law--enacted to clear up the uncertainty that has clouded their future in strip mining. Congressional advocates of the bill, among them Washington Senator Henry Jackson, intend to try again.

> Less widely disputed was the President's pocket veto of the Energy Transportation Security Act. Backed by the politically powerful shipbuilders' and seafarers' unions, the bill provided that by 1977, fully 30% of all oil imported into the U.S. would have to be carried on tankers built in American yards and manned by American crews. Little oil is now imported in U.S.-registered tankers, which are considerably more costly to build and operate than most foreign-flag vessels. The bill would have increased federal subsidies to U.S. shipbuilders and operators, which now run to nearly $550 million annually, more than $800 million over the next five years.

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