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Show Hatch actively supports western coal amendment Senators Cliff Hansen (R-Wyo.) (R-Wyo.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Ut) were successful last Tuesday evening in removing language from the President's Energy package which would have regionalized coal use and development de-velopment in the U.S. to the detriment of clean burning Utah and Western coal. Hansen, supported by Sen. Hatch, sponsored an amendment amend-ment which expressly prohibits pro-hibits any Governor, federal agency, or the President himself him-self from issuing any order which would not allow the free market flow and transportation trans-portation of coal throughout the nation. Senator Hatch said, 'The amendment protects the environment envi-ronment by allowing the use of low sulfur coal from Utah In the East and insures the continued development of this extremely valuable Utah resource." re-source." The two Senators agreed that the free market system must be protected so that "our utility companies can buy coul at the best price, best availability, and with the best possible effects on the environment, envi-ronment, so the lowest possible pos-sible price for service can be returned to the rate payer." "An additional bonus," said Senator Hatch, "is the removal re-moval of this regionalizing language from the Clean Air Act which the Senate amended am-ended about a month ago. It will now be possible for our Western coal companies to go aDout the business of developing develop-ing long-term contracts with companies throughout the nation na-tion without the fear of some bureaucrat forcing a utility to use locally-produced coal. The language in the bill was possibly the most outright attack on interstate commerce com-merce I have ever seen .Fortunately .For-tunately , this time we were able to stop it." By allowing the transportation transpor-tation of clean-burning Utah and Western coal to areas of high S02 pollution the Senate both promotes clean air and protects the economy. Western Wes-tern coal users will not be forced, now, to raise their rates to pay for unnecessary sulfur scrubbers because one day they might have been forced to use dirty local coal. |