Defeat for the Strippers

For the U.S., coal will be one of the saving alternatives to oil as an energy source, and the easiest way to meet the nation's rising coal needs is to strip-mine. But strip mining -- ripping off a top layer of earth to get at the coal underground -- has done so much damage in the past that it is a prime target for environmentalists.

Half of U.S. coal output already comes from surface mines, and energy companies have taken leases on large chunks of the huge unexploited coal reserves of the West, where low-sulfur coal lies close to the surface. But with 1,000 chewed-up acres being added each week to the existing 2.5 million acres of strip-mined land, Congress is finally acting to make sure that coal producers do not create another ravaged Appalachia.

After more than two years of wrangling and delay, the House of Representatives last week passed a compromise bill that would set up a new agency to regulate strip mining. Backed by Russell Train, Environmental Protection Agency chief, but opposed by the Interior Department, the Federal Energy Administration and the coal industry, the bill passed by a top-heavy pro-environment vote of 291 to 81. It now goes to a House-Senate conference for meshing with an even tougher Senate bill, which was passed last October.

The House measure sets new fed eral standards for the "regrading and re-vegetating" of stripped land, and also for the preservation of water tables (removal of the coal can divert underground streams and deprive neighboring farmers and ranchers of precious water). The bill also provides funding for restoration of previously mined land.

Pennsylvania, where strip mining has been thriving under strict state law, will be little affected. Similarly, in the well-watered Midwest, where new vegetation can take hold on restored land, stripping presents few reclamation problems.

The bill's main impact will be on low-rainfall Western states like Montana, the Dakotas, New Mexico and Wyoming, which have 25 billion tons of coal reserves. There, reclamation is difficult and sometimes impossible. Complicating the problem is the new demand for Western coal, whose low-sulfur content makes it highly attractive to industries that must otherwise invest in expensive antipollution equipment during the next few years to conform with the federal Clean Air Act.

Some coal producers are still hoping that President Nixon will veto the strip-mining bill. Their lobbyists insist that any regulation at all would "discriminate against energy values." National Coal Association President Carl Bagge calls the House bill a disaster, claiming that it virtually "prohibits" mining in many Western areas. Industry spokesmen argue that the committee bill could reduce coal production by as much as one-third. Not so, counter the environmentalists: underground mining of Western coal is feasible and could be profitable.

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