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<br />.3-wRW washn x x x resources <br />Coal, on the other hand, accounts for 90 percent of our fossil <br />fuel reserves, but only 17 percent of our usage. according to Ross. <br />''We are burning up oil and gas as though we wanted to get rid of them, <br />and saving coal as though it were scarce. This pattern just doesn't <br />make sense," Ross told fhe APPA. <br />And he continued, "If our consumption continues to increase at a <br />rate of 4 ~ercent, and we rely on our own domestic resources, we will <br />- <br />run out of oil by 19901 out of natural gas by 1995~ and out of coal by <br />- <br />the middle of the next century." To underscore this point, Ross has <br />said if we continue to use energy the way we have been doing, a child <br />born this morning could see gasoline disappear completely from the mar- <br />ket just about the time he gets a driver's license. And that same <br />child could live to see the complete exhaustion of all fossil fuels, <br />he has predicted. <br />Relying on more oil and gas imports to meet our dwindling supplies <br />is not the answer for two reasons, he points out. There is no assur- <br />ance of a steady supply from these sources, as dramatized by the oil <br />embargo of Arab nations against the United states and other nations <br />output of the <br />last year, he says. And even the/richest oil sheikdom is going to be- <br />gin to peak out and start to decline before the year 2000, he adds. <br />"Clearly, then we cannot continue to depend on oil and gas for <br />most of our energy. We MOST shift to fuels that are more abundant. <br />This means relying on coal and on uranium, first in our present light- <br />water reactors: then the vastly increased resource of uranium in the <br />breeder and finally fusion. <br />liTo use these resources, we must substitute electricity for direct <br />combustion of oil and gas in as many end-use applications as feasible. <br />The question is not whether we are going to do this, but where and when <br />- <br />we will make the substitutions, n Ross told the APPA, <br />MUST REORDER ~AIS AND PRIORITmS <br />America has no choice, then, but reorder her goals and priorities, <br /> <br />according to Ross, We should place our emphasis on: <br /> <br />,Fusion power, not on MHO. <br /> <br />.coal gasification and liquefaction, not on geothermal systems. ...,. <br /> <br />0183 <br />