Washington Survey - USBM Criticized

National Society of Professional Engineers has thrown its full sup- port behind pending legislation to appropriate $500 million for national conversion efforts that would provide employment opportunities for engineers, scientists, and technicians who are currently unemployed because of the decline in defense and aerospace programs. Known as the Davis-Giaimo bill, the proposed legislation would raise total Federal investment in science and technology to an adequate annual spending level and keep it proportionally equal to the growth in the GNP. If passed, the bill would increase and maintain Federal obligations for civilian-oriented research and development activities to a parity level with similar obligations for defense research development. U. S. Bureau of Mines has cataloged and placed on open file an inventory of U.S. coal deposits which can be economically strip mined at today's production costs. The costs include charges for reclaiming the mined land as required by 21 states. The report claims that some 46 billion tons of bituminous coal and lignite can be strip mined under present economic conditions, and that 32 billion tons of the total is classified as having less than 1% S. The report reviews strippable coal deposits by state, by county, by coal seam, by coal-seam thickness and by sulfur content. The report also gives an up-to-date summary of state laws on surface mine reclamation. Open-file copies of "Strippable Reserves of Bituminous Coal and Lignite in the U.S." may be consulted in Washington, D.C., at the Department of the Interior library and at U.S. Bureau of Mines offices in Pittsburgh, Denver, San Francisco. Dallas. Spokane, and Douglas Island, Juneau. Alaska.