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Show New Sources Key to U.S. Energy Needs Energy' Were all affected by it Yet we cant define with our senses its origins, its transfer, its expression Everyones talking about it Everyone is concerned What does it mean to a typical American Heres one measure by histone standards In the Middle Ages, nine out of ten persons worked in agriculture. Today, one out of 51 persons in the United States works to provide foods for all Thats the meaning of technology and energy! Another way to express it An average adult male can h perform at the rate of leaving the US in their dust What, then, would Dr Finlayson commend to the nations new administration and to its citizenry The first step is conserva tion, says Dr Finlayson Both Utah Power & Light Co and Mountain Fuel Supply Co have made energy conservation books available to their customers Houses should be better insulated. Persons can think about cutting water, hot water and car use Case in point Dr Fin layson has sold two of his three family cars, and now pools with others to work. He has wrapped his hot water tank with a layer of insulation figuring savings of 25 percent in energy to heat water He has installed doublepane thermal windows in his home Commerce and industry, he added, have may portunities for energy servation Uses Heat Pump opcon- The Administration Building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in downtown Salt Lake City uses heat pumps for example to either extract heat from or deliver heat to underground water stream In the long run, public transit will probably turn one-sixt- horsepower under duress In terms of energy use, every American has functional equivalent of 220 other persons working round the clock for him Thats what energy has done Consider Corn Or consider a No 303 can of corn That corn therein contains the equivalent of 197 kilocalories or food calones However, to grow, harvest, truck, process, can, distribute, sell, transport to household, etc , involved the expenditure of 1,970 kilocalories And so, says Dr Val A. Finlayson, director of research and development for Utah Power & Light Co , Energy has become a significant part of our lives without us even knowing it Wlll we be short of energy by the 1980s as many fore- Dr Finlayson said he also would take the price controls off oil and natural gas so that The higher price would encourage conservation and switch to alternate fuels And exploration and development for new sources would be encouraged Federally controlled prices, he said, have only encouraged waste and misuse of these finite fuels What can be done now Two resources are lm mediately available for additional energy coal and nuclear power A great deal of U238 is removed in the uranium cast Not if we move ahead quickly with an energy policy, says Dr Finlayson If the government thinks postively about energy development, there will be sufficient energy in the 1980s and thereafter If it listens to the counsel of the "do nothing element, then Wed better resurrect the homestead laws In the Dust The nation has many options to deal with energy, he says Sadly, enrichment however, though it has pioneered in many forms of energy de nuclear for velopment other nations are example 1977 17. Financial Institutions See Good Year April Assuming the drought doesnt impact too heavily, this will be a good year for Utah and its financial stitutions, says e ''alt lif I it W in- S Bnmhall, director commissioner of the Utah Depart ment of Financial Institu tions Last year was a good one Resources of all Utah banks gained nearly 10 per cent to $4 3 billion Thus, resources may well top $4 6 billion by the end of 1977 Growth Resources The growth in resources back to electric rail and short haul commuter car battery powered he says The reason It takes considerably less original energy input to recharge a battery to deliver automotive energy than it now does to refine, process deliver an equivalent amount of energy m gasoline After conservation, what Coal and nuclear energy are the best bets for the next few years, and their development should be pressed, not inhibited, says Dr Finlayson On that count, he would urge that pollution control be considered on a case by case basis, and not on a general basis Utah Power & Light Co , for example, now building a second plant at Huntington, Emery County, and preparing to build two additional ones at Emery, 20 miles to the south, is being compelled to spend $85 million to install sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide controls for the plants all though they are located m relatively uninhabited areas and are using low sulphur coal for fuel Research Funding How much better it would be, he said, if UP&L could allocate that $85 million to research in discovering means of recovering sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide for use m fertilizer Presently, they are being saddled with a system that will only produce a useless sludge of sulphur byproduct also has put a heavy strain on their managers to sustain adequate capital ratio The capital factor is down slightly from what it was 20 years ago The pressure has general- compelled the financial institutions to follow conservative dividend policies And many have had to build capital accounts by sale of capital stock or debentures Applications for new char ters came to the commission at a fast dip m 1976 ly Some were obviously aimed at services in fast growing areas Others are for areas where need is marginal, but promise of future growth is attractive The largest number of applications for banking and savings and loan offices seek locations in south Salt Lake County and north Utah County Funds Transfer Electronics funds transfer terminals may well be available in some Utah retail sources in the near future, perhaps by 1978, Mr Bnmhall predicts But EFTS or checkless banking if you will poses a great number of questions Will it initially be limited to credit venfication and check guarantee only Will more elaborate services be offered on an experimental basis as authonzed by the last legis lature What kinds of retail stores will be involved How about the financial institutions And, indeed, will the public accept these new methods of financial services process, he points out Most of the U238 is stored in Kentuc ky Useless Fuel Useless as a fuel now, it could be converted to plutonium for use in a breeder reactor Thus, there is enough potential energy in U2.58 waste to equal the total coal resources of the nation But the U S , one e in the lead with breeder technology it operated the first at Arco, Idaho, in 1951 is now well behind Its first large demonstration wont be operating breeder until 1983 Meanwhile, Russia has been operating a breeder reactor of 300 megawatt capacity France has been operating one for two years Both Germany and Japan broke ground last year on 300 megawatt reactors Great Britain has con struc ted one What to do with nuclear wastes You could bury it or send it out into space Each poses its own problems, however The third alternative is to disarm the radioactive ma terial by fusion Recently, the the utility funded Electric Power Research Institute agreed with Russia to contnbute nuclear wastes to put into one of the Soviet fusion devices to determine the cost of Russian Research The Russians, says Dr Finlayson are now budgeting twice as much as the U S in fusion research Nuclear energy may have problems, he says But they are solvable As for alternative fuel sources: The United States geothermal resources are located in the West. And it appears that geothermal can only serve as supplemental source of power Utahs first commercial field is located 10 miles northeast of Milford Phillips Petroleum Co is checking out the size of the field and determining how long it will last Utah Power & Light drilled a well north of Brigham City and found it to be McCulloch Oil Co , Geothermal Kinetics and Utah Power drilled three wells west of Cedar City None was determined to be commercial A fourth well is planned this year Phillips is now surveying a UP&L prospect near Fort Hall, Idaho The burning of solid waste from municipal garbage also promises to supply a few per cent of the nations power needs Waste Studies Studies of Salt Lake area solid waste are underway to determine if metals could be economically reclaimed from the waste before it gores under the boilers Solar heating of buildings will be commercial in about five years, he says Locally, there are four solar water heating systems in the Valley and three solar homes UP&L is monitoring the four water units and two of the homes Each of the solar homes has its own methodology All use electricity for a back up Since Utah Power & Light is a summer peaking utilitv it will have power avadable in winter to supplement solar heating systems, he says As for solar generating of electricity The Energy Research and Development Administra tion and Southern California Edison Co are building the nations first, a unit Acres of mirrors will focus sun light to a boiler on top of tower where a 1,000-foo- t steam will be used to drive a turbine Because the sun does not shine at night, and because solar store you cannot energy, it appears solar will never supply more than 10 25 percent of the nations generated power. 1 |