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Show mm PLUMBING SEA DEPTHS FOR ENERGY AND MINERALS Congress is nearing final action on two measures intended to expedite the recovery of energy and minerals from ocean waters to be undertaken by companies in the private sector. Both have attracted plentiful support on . Capitol Hill and appear to have no difficulty in securing the requisite approval of President Carter. Each would bring us several steps nearer to goals long sought: Energy ' and mineral supplies now urgently ' needed so that in time we could become ' less dependent on foreign imports for these strategic items which are the life : blood of our industrial economy and our . sophisticated technology. Each would help also to make business, govern-. govern-. ment, and the public more aware of the importance of pursuing these goals steadily and as rapidly as our competence com-petence in ocean-bed exploration permits. OCEAN THERMAL : ENERGY CONVERSION i The first of these bills is concerned . with research and development of ocean thermal conversion (OTEC), a process already beyond the experimental ex-perimental stage. In fact, proponents of this theory and its application and of the enabling legislation to encourage ' it assert with considerable confidence . that the ocean is a solar energy supplier of enormous potential and significance. They point out that it is an energy source which remains constant in its reproductivity 24 hours a day, and insist (hat it" can be recovered and ; stored. I The world's first closed-cycle OTEC : barge, a self-sustaining energy con-; con-; version system, began to operate : successfully in Hawaiian waters last ; year. This barge transformed solar I energy, stored in warm waters near the '. surface, into a variety of energy forms ! and products. j FEDERAL LOAN GUARANTEES j The legislation is expected to resolve j legal problems delaying commercial t development of OTEC. It will provide j federal loan guarantees to build and equip facilities so that a well-rounded research, development, and demon-: demon-: stration program can be set up within the Energy Department. And it would commit the U.S. to attainment of an OTEC electrical and energy produce equivalent capacity of 10,1)00 megawatts, by 1999. DEEP SEABED MINING OK Perhaps even more important than OTEC in its longer-term impact on our high-technology industries is the deep seabed mining bill that also is close to becoming law. This would authorize and regulate seabed mining by U.S. citizens in the dep ocean, allowing our country to free itself from current serious dependence on foreign sources for strategic minerals, including cobalt, manganese, and nickel. Long delayed in its, consideration by Congress, as developments in the decade-long Law of the Sea Conference ;. sponsored by the United Nations were awaited, the deep seabed mining law ." will enable American companies which are already the leading factors in '; international consortia in this field to ; proceed with experimentation and : development of the methods required to i mine manganese nodules. These are .; potato-size mineral deposits that lie in v profusion on the floor of the sea at depths of from 5,000 to 20,000 feet. IMPRESSIVE POTENTIAL .; Cobalt from these nodules could be i: recovered in quantities sufficient for all :: foreseeable U.S. needs. At present, we ': are entirely dependent for our supplies of cobalt on nations that are politically : unstable. One of these is Zaire. c Nickel, too, is a metal in which we are deficient, but need in sizable quantities for stainless steel and high-; high-; temperature alloys. While commercial i recovery of these would not be per-? per-? mitted until 1988 under the proposed if law (to give UN negotiators still more :f time to agree), its implementation would allow U.S. interests a head start : in reserach and development. |