Published February 1963 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
From the office of UNITED STATES SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD Room 342, Old Senate Office Building, Washington 25, D.C. Volume III -- Number 7 2-15-63 Note to Editors: This column is for release to weekly and daily newspapers on Wednesday, February 20, or on any day thereafter, but not on any prior date. BYRD'S EYE VIEW A Public Service Column by SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD GAS MADE FROM COAL LOOMS AS ALTERNATIVE TO NATURAL GAS Within a few years, synthetic gas produced in West Virginia from Mountain State coal may be heating homes and firing industrial boilers in New England and in the Middle Atlantic States. This new outlook for coal usage can be attributed to our Nation's growing energy needs, scientific breakthroughs in coal technology, and the increasing price of natural gas. Paradoxically, leading natural gas producers are supporting research efforts to produce gas from coal, even though they continue to under-mine coal's long-established markets through special price arrangements to large consumers. But there are pressing economic reasons why these producers are turning to coal gasification as an alternative to natural gas. In the last decade the price of natural gas has increased rapidly, because of rising costs of exploration, marketing, and transportation. On top of this, there has been a long-term downward trend in the ratio of gas reserves as against gas use. The use of natural gas as a fuel has almost tripled in the last 20 years, and demand continues to rise. But about 80 per cent of the gas reserves that are expected to be used in the future have not yet been discovered. Thus, the natural gas industry is faced with the problem of assuring the availability of supply without incurring tremendous exploration costs while drilling for as yet undiscovered reserves. For this reason, gas industry leaders hope that an alternative to natural gas can be obtained by manufacturing gas from coal. These leaders view the coal fields of West Virginia) and adjacent areas, as providentially suited to their needs. Not only are these coal fields much closer to densely populated centers than are the distant natural gas fields in Texas and Louisiana--which can result in cheaper transportation costs--, but major gas pipelin.es already cross the Mountain State, and could be used for the transmission of the gas manufactured from coal. Processes for producing pipeline gas from coal are in a state of advanced development. A few of these processes are reaching the stage where pilot plant operations are needed to determine the economics of the processes and to work out certain engineering factors as well as to improve "method technology." Government officials believe that by 1970, barring unforeseen delays, the commercial production of gas manufactured from coal could be a reality. If this comes to pass, the economy of West Virginia could be substantially strengthened. - 30 -