Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 14, 1993 TAG: 9310140117
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Clinton plan won't include new taxes or mandatory controls on emissions of "greenhouse" gases, Boucher told the annual meeting of the Virginia Coal Council in Roanoke.
Some scientists say the world is threatened by industrial and utility emissions, which increase the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere. Such gases act like a greenhouse, trapping heat.
But Boucher said a National Academy of Sciences study has concluded that scientific evidence does not support global warming theories.
The Clinton administration will go along with an academy recommendation and will suggest the pursuit of relatively low-cost measures to reduce emissions, such as the planting of more trees, Boucher said.
Among the other measures Clinton will suggest, he said, are:
An initiative to improve the efficiency of the 40 million motors used by U.S. industry.
A doubling of the energy-audit services now provided for business by university-based centers.
Funding for research into new battery technology for use in electric vehicles.
Asking the developing countries - where some of the cheapest emission cuts can be made - to do their part.
While Boucher brought good news to the meeting, William F. Bales, Norfolk Southern Corp.'s vice president for coal, set a grimmer tone when he described the depressed state of the U.S. coal export business.
"It's not one of our better years," said Bales, whose railroad company exports several million tons of coal a year through its piers at Hampton Roads.
A European economy mired in recession, expansion of the United Mine Workers strike and higher coal prices have hurt the U.S. export market, said Bales, who expects exports to rebound after 1995.
Related to a potentially serious threat to the coal industry, NS and seven other U.S. railroads and about 30 coal companies have formed an organization whose goal is to improve coal's public image.
Dwayne Cassidy of the CSX Corp. said a study comparing the coal industry with the fur and red-meat industries - others that fell out of the public's favor - indicates 50 percent of coal-derived revenues could be at risk.
Joseph Vipperman, president of Roanoke-based Appalachian Power Co., assured coal executives that coal would play a major role in the company's generation of electricity far into the future. Ninety-seven percent of Apco electricity is generated by burning coal.
by CNB