ABSTRACT
Keith Murray reports that nearly 618 million tons of coal have been produced in Colorado during the 114-year period between 1864-1977. Great as this sum seems, it amounts to less than one year's output in the entire United States. Among the major considerations in analyzing how Colorado's coal will be used is an evaluation of the transportation alternatives for moving the coal—or the energy it may generate— out of the State. To meet the export demands for energy from Colorado steam coal, there are four major transportation alternatives: Transporting coal by rail in unit trains, transporting coal by slurry pipelines, generating electricity on site and transmitting the power and converting to synthetic fuels and transporting by pipelines. Conventional electric generation involves burning coal which generates steam to operate turbines. Coal-gasification and liquefaction are developing high capital-intensive technologies with relatively large water requirements. Traditionally, coal mining has been a labor-intensive industry requiring relatively large numbers of employees.
