Think the days of burning coal in Western Pennsylvania are numbered? Not so fast. Our vast coal reserves and ongoing research into clean coal technologies will keep coal in the limelight here for decades to come.

		Edgar Berkey, of Moon, is vice president of Concurrent Technologies Corp., Downtown, and a former member of the DOE Environmental Management Advisory Board and the EPA Science Advisory Board.

Coal remains among our cheapest energy options, and by using modern coal gasification, we can increase power-plant efficiency. This combination of advantages is drawing growing interest because of the role it could play in curbing global warming.

But there is a threat hanging over coal. Pending federal legislation threatens to shut down some coal-fired power plants and stifle the construction of coal-gasification plants. Congress is being urged by some to approve legislation requiring coal plants to achieve a 90 percent reduction in emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury, and to curtail releases of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. The cost of retrofitting coal power plants would be in the tens of billions of dollars, more than most utilities are prepared to spend. Instead of complying with such costly mandates, electric utilities are likely to switch from coal to natural gas, a much more costly alternative.

Such a switch would have significant economic consequences. Natural gas is in shorter supply than coal, and its price on the wholesale "spot" market has tripled since 1990. In addition, gas supplies have been diverted from industrial customers to utilities for electricity production, putting pressure on some factories to close and to move jobs overseas where gas is cheaper and more abundant.

There is a more sensible way to continue burning coal and achieve cleaner air. The Clear Skies legislation, proposed by President Bush and also being considered by Congress, is an alternative. It calls for a 70 percent reduction in emissions, along with a cap-and-trade system for achieving it.

This market-based approach to emissions abatement, where utilities trade clean-air credits, can achieve reductions far more efficiently and cost effectively than the old command-and-control mandates. Since 1990, it has been used to substantially reduce levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, resulting in less acid rain and ozone smog. New and improved coal combustion technologies contributed to these reductions. The same cap-and-trade system, coupled with better technologies, also can drop mercury emissions to acceptable levels.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is more difficult, however, and here is where the new interest in coal gasification comes in. The key is an approach known as integrated gasification combined cycle technology, in which gas derived from coal is used to produce electricity. Thanks to support from DOE's nearby National Energy Technology Laboratory, IGCC power plants are already producing electricity in Florida and Indiana, and more are under construction or planned.

IGCC technology uses a gasifier to convert coal into a gas, which in turn is burned in a combined-cycle gas turbine to make electricity. IGCC plants are far more efficient than conventional coal plants. The result is that much less carbon dioxide is emitted per megawatt of electricity produced. However, IGCC plants have high capital costs, and therefore government loan guarantees are needed to make them economically feasible.

Increasing numbers of demonstrations that have coal-burning plants using IGCC technology, which operates more cleanly and efficiently, will speed wider use of this technology. This would give us cost-effective control of carbon emissions and more efficient use of our extensive domestic coal reserves. Increased efficiency results in more power -- and that's another advantage, since the Federal Energy Administration projects that the nation's electricity demand will increase 40 percent by the year 2020.

Adopting new clean-coal technology is particularly important in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Otherwise, we will face soaring energy costs if Congress mandates rigid restrictions on power plant emissions beyond those in the Blue Skies approach. Any development that might provoke another economic slide in this region would not be good for either our economic or environmental health.