2. optimistic indicating coal production of 1. 6 billion tons by 1985 and the most conservative indicating 1 billion tons by 1985 against a 1970 production of 613 million tons. In these projections the use of coal in 1985 to produce synthetic fuels ranged from 339 million tons to a low of 47 million tons. The major user of coal in these projections is the electrical utility industry, although coal's share of fuel supplied to the electric utility market falls in all cases below the present level. The difference between the high and low projections is the rapidity with which new technology becomes effective for economic stack gas clean-up to make high sulfur coals usable and for production of synthetic fuels. Another forecast of coal's role comes from the Stanford Research Institute. SRI takes a gloomier view by assuming that the present requirements of the Clean Air Act will be enforced and that technology to control sulfur emissions will not be available until around 1980. If this projection materializes, coal production serving the electric utility industry will decline from the 1970 level of 320 million tons to 170 million tons in 1980 and then climb back to 430 million tons in 1985, an estimated 146 million tons lower than the NPC's most likely forecast for that year. National energy policies being formulated by this Committee will determine in large measure whether history shows these forecasts to have had validity. Perhaps they serve us here to highlight some of the problems facing the industry and some of the obstacles that must be overcome if coal is to play a meaningful role in displacing imported oil. Certainly if we could wed the availability of coal resources with the environmental desirability of natural gas, our problems in electricity generation would be solved. That day may come but it is not here, and it won't be for some time.