National Energy Plan and Coal Utilization

The National Energy Plan announced by President Carter on April 29,1977, proposed a significant increase in the utilization of the vast domestic deposits of coal to replace the dwindling supplies of petroleum and natural gas, and increasingly expensive petroleum from foreign sources, to meet national energy needs. And, yet 34 years later, the country has not decreased the dependency on foreign petroleum—in fact the dependency has increased  

Deciding whether or not the Act has been given serious consideration and follow up is difficult. The dependency on foreign petrolenm continned to increase and the U.S. Congress has failed to act in a manner conducive to the best interests of the people of the United States. 

While the use of fuels from biological sources seems to be on the rise, the increase in use of such fuels is marginal and will require longer times for snch source to become a major part of the United States economy and fnel picture. 

In the meantime, coal offers an answer throngh technology that has been known for decades and is already established. 

However, there are many factors that inflnence (even act as a deterrent to) coal use in the United States (and in many other countries) bnt the most prominent factor is the environmental impact of coal use—especially carbon dioxide emissions associated with global climate change—which is speculated to pose the greatest potential constraint on future coal utilization (Pittock, 2009 Bell, 2011). Furthermore, the uncertainty abont fntnre requirements to control these environmental impacts can itself act as a constraint on fntnre coal ntilization. 

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