SOME LIKE ENERGY TAX; OTHERS DO A SLOW BURN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 10, 1993                   TAG: 9303100097
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SOME LIKE ENERGY TAX; OTHERS DO A SLOW BURN
Some have warmed to President Clinton's proposed energy tax; others feel scorched by it.
Richard Trumka, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said Tuesday he will support the tax. A UMW analysis has found it will not hurt the coal industry's share of the energy market.
"We believe President Clinton's recovery plan is a fair and reasonable response to the economic crisis he inherited from Ronald Reagan and George Bush," he said.
But the American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest state and national farmers' organization, opposes the levy. It will raise production costs, cut farm prices and make U.S. farmers less competitive in world markets, the bureau told Clinton last week.
In a letter to Clinton, Farm Bureau President Dean Kleckner said the tax will cost farmers an estimated $1 billion per year.
Clinton proposed to tax fuels based on their heat content, measured in British thermal units, or Btus. The tax would cost the typical American household $100 to $150 a year, the government estimates.
It would be phased in over three years, starting in July 1994. The levy on natural gas, coal and nuclear power would be 25.7 cents per million Btus, on oil 59.9 cents.
"Our analysis suggests that it would maintain a level playing field among energy industry competitors and that there would be no noticeable impact on the coal industry's share of the [electric] utility market," Trumka said. He praised Clinton's proposal to apply the tax to energy imports and to exempt energy exports. Coal exports add $4 billion to the U.S. trade balance and provide thousands of Appalachian jobs, he said.
Urging Clinton to remove the tax from his economic proposal, Kleckner told the president it would affect all aspects of farm production, from running combines and irrigation systems to heating barns and greenhouses.
The tax would raise the price of gasoline 7.5 cents, diesel 8.3 cents and propane 2.3 cents, Kleckner said; its impact would range from $3,486 on a 1,200-acre tomato farm in California to $170 at a 50-cow dairy farm in Wisconsin.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB