Coal Mainly Stands and Waits

Troubles galore getting the rich energy source to market

At sunrise one morning two weeks ago, Captain Kenneth Redden and his nine-man crew maneuvered the tugboat Susan McBride and her 15 barges, heading north to take on coal, into a mooring along the Mississippi River near Alton, Ill. For the next three days, Redden and his men watched TV and played cards, while waiting to get the vessels through the antiquated locks that are known as the Turnstyle of the Upper Mississippi.

Redden's delay was typical of the problems of transporting the U.S.'s largest potential source of energy. While experts predict that America's vast coal reserves could become a major alternative to OPEC oil and an important export product, the use of coal is being thwarted by the U.S.'s inadequate and outdated system of transporting the valuable black rock.

The U.S. has been discussing its great plans for coal ever since the first oil crisis seven years ago. Presidents since Richard Nixon have proposed legislation that would get the nation to use more coal, but in 1979 the coal industry mined only 770 million tons, 100 million below capacity. Despite President Carter's pledge at the June economic summit meeting in Venice to double coal production by 1990, this year miners are expected to dig only 815 million tons, an increase of 6%.

Even if it could get the coal out of the ground, however, the U.S. lacks the transportation network to move it rapidly and inexpensively. Coal already is piling up, waiting for barges, railroad cars or ships to carry it. Railroads haul 65% of coal, and the Department of Transportation estimates that the industry will have to spend about $12 billion by 1985 to replace ancient equipment and improve track roadbeds. Yet the railroads are reluctant to spend huge sums until they are certain that the demand for coal will remain strong. Says John Fishwick, president of the Norfolk & Western Railway: "We need long-term contracts if we're to put money into facilities."

Railroaders also argue that if they cannot earn a sufficient profit on a shipment of coal, they will be unable to invest the money needed to keep tracks and cars in good shape. Critics charge, though, that railroads often demand exorbitant rates in areas where there are no good alternatives for moving the bulky product.

Barge and port facilities are also insufficient. The export demand for steam coal in Europe increased by nearly 100% last year, yet buyers are unhappy about the delays in delivery. U.S. piers have little storage capacity, so that railroad cars stocked with the black stuff wait weeks to be unloaded. Port channels are neither large nor deep enough to handle the traffic. Through most of the summer there were about 50 colliers at anchor on any given day at Hampton Roads, Va., the largest coal port on the East Coast.

Eric Thibau, a commercial attache of the French embassy in Washington, met on July 12 with Virginia Governor John Dalton and Senator Harry F. Byrd Jr. to warn them that France, which last year bought $180 million worth of coal through Hampton Roads, would take its business elsewhere unless the port is modernized. Said Thibau: "We are not so much displeased as surprised. When you think that the U.S. put a man on the moon, you'd think that it would have modern railroad and pier facilities. But the technology is 30 to 50 years out of date." Americans, who used to enjoy laughing at the French and their deplorable phone system and bumpy roads, will have to become accustomed to Europeans joking about overaged U.S. transportation facilities.

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