A Blow To Carter's Energy Policy

When President Carter put his comprehensive energy program before Congress last year, he envisioned a major shift from scarce natural gas and uncertain foreign oil to plentiful domestic coal. Coal use was to nearly double by 1985, to 1.2 billion tons a year. The Administration urged tax incentives for the conversion of industrial plants to coal, and it required that coal be used in many new factories and utilities.

Even before the strike, Carter's plan confronted some serious obstacles, notably the enforcement of clean-air standards. To that problem must now be added the question of reliable supplies and stable prices for the coal that the Carter policy recommends. During the strike so far, with overall coal production cut by about half, affected utilities have kept operating partly by burning an extra 400,000 bbl. per day of oil.

No matter how the strike is eventually resolved, it will make coal more expensive. The settlement that the miners rejected two weeks ago would have added $3.17 a ton to coal's price (currently around $21). According to the Manhattan-based Edison Electric Institute, that would translate into a 15% increase in utility fuel costs, and a 5% increase in the average consumer's electricity bill.

There is already evidence that the conversion to alternatives to oil is being delayed. In the first nine months of 1977, U.S. utilities canceled or delayed construction of 26 major coal-fired plants, as well as 36 nuclear-powered ones. With the added impact of the coal strike, the future of Carter's coal-based energy policy looks, well, dark.

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