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Show Syn-fuels council asks "05 years flo gjetf projects on line By HELENE C. MONBERG Vernal Express Washington correspondent Washington-The National Council on Synthetic Fuels Production has asked the House Mining Committee to increase in-crease the period during which a coal mine under federal lease must be put in production from 10 "to at least 15 years." Michael S. Koleda, president of the National Council on Synthetic Fuels Production, testified on June 10 before the Subcommittee on a bill by Reps. Ray Kogovsek, D-Colo., Dan Marriott, . R-Utah, and others to revise the 1976 , Coal Mine Leasing Act. The Subcommittee heard from representatives of the Coal industry, from syn fuels, and from the environmental en-vironmental groups about changes in the 1976 law. The industry representatives represen-tatives feel the law is too restrictive and MUST be changed. The environmentalists argued againsty any change. Kogovsek, who acted as chairman during most of the hearing, told this correspondent after the hearing, he did not expect any changes in the law to get thru Congress this year. Koleda strongly urged the change in the 1976 law on commercial production from 10 to at least 15 years for coal properties pro-perties under lease to be used in syn-fuels syn-fuels products. Kogovsek said most people in "our part of the West think of synfuels in terms of oil shale. Koleda replied that this perception was not necessarily wrong : that the two going syn-fuels projects which have received aid from the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corp. to date are an oil shale project pro-ject at Parashute Creek, Colo., being honchoed by the Union Oil Co. of California Califor-nia and a coal-gasification project in North Dakota's Mercer County being honchoed by a group of gas transmission transmis-sion companies located in the Midwest and South. Most of the projects which the Syn-Fuels Syn-Fuels Corporation have studied for aid requests to date have been either oil shale or coal-based for the production of shale oil or synthetic coal or gas, Koleda stated. He strongly urged that the Kogovsek bill be modified to take into consideration considera-tion "syn-fuels projects. The scale and complexity of plants now being proposed propos-ed suggest a period of well over 10 and by some estimates more than 15 years before construction is completed and the lease is in commercial prbductioni ' Current requirements mandate produc- ' tion in commercial quantities . by the end of the tenth year. HR5895 (the Kogovsek bill) would not address fully the timing disparity for synthetic fuels projects" which are coal-based, Koleda stated. He urged that longer periods be provided for such deposits to be put into commercial production pro-duction for syn-fuels, with a requirement require-ment of a good-faith effort by the syn-fuels syn-fuels producer to prevent possible speculation. At a hearing held before the House Environment, Energy & Natural Subcommittee Sub-committee on June 9, Subcommittee Chairman Toby Moffett, D-Conn., observed that a recent study of the future obligations of the Synthetic Fuels Corp. "by the Congressional Budget Office indicated they would total $7 billion or more in the next 10 years. The Corporation publicly says it has projects ready for financing, but its own staff says none are ready for construction." con-struction." Furthermore, Moffett said, there are no projects in the demonstration demonstra-tion stage yet, altho the Department of Energy has been working on syn-fuels projects for several years. Moffett also t gave the corporation a shot fori, 1 "almost all of its substan: work. .behind closed doors." Base ; Moffett questioned the corpora1. 3 existence. . The Moffett Subcommittee's he?, was an oversight function to try It , out where the Syn-Fuels Corporate going in these days of tight budf t Chairman Edward E. Noble of flie : Fuels Corporation gave vague arc.: to the Subcommittee's questions,)! ; ding to those who atended the hear Noble insisted that the Corporal) : "principal function is to provide : tives to assist in capital formation.: assuming certain contingent liabili-for liabili-for projects we judge to be tectaas and economically feasible, werait! possible for these projects to ate: financing in current markets." Rep. Hank Brown, R-Colo., clar the recent shutdown of the Cota; Shale project in the Piceance C-. area of Western Colorado approved -the syn-fuels corporation could hurry syn-fuels development. At the Colony project in Can County, Colo., "Exxon had to ff-work ff-work on a project even tho the cent share of the (Colony) project r-ed r-ed by Tosco was underwritten t; federal loan. Even with this sor direct federal aid, Exxon M economics of the situation dr represent a prudent business r.-"Brown r.-"Brown said in testimony site before the Moffett Subcor:-Brown Subcor:-Brown is the leading proponent House and Principal sponsor ofat abolish the Syn-Fuels Corpora It can be justifiably argued tbl-'; Syn-Fuels Corporation had abolished (with its potent1 billion cost over the period W ;.. federal borrowing brought dow ing down interest rates. Exio not nave had to suspend the ject," Brown stated. |