Page Three meet one of the nuggets of the class". Before I could say anything, he looked me up and down and remarked: "Jesus Christ, if that's a nugget, I'm going off the gold standard." Along with General Electric, Utah has bet its chips on the future of electric energy. We are all well aware of the tremendous growth in the use of electricity that has taken place in the United States and will continue to take place. Paced by California, the market for electrical energy is growing at an even faster rate in the Far West than for the U. S. as a whole. This is a market that has been traditionally served by hydropower, fuel oil, and natural gas. However, the ability of these energy sources to take care of the future growth of the market is limited. Hydropower has already developed most of the economical sites. Natural gas is brought into California from as far away as Canada and Texas, and the cost of this fuel has been escalating rapidly in recent years. Faced with increasing costs of meeting their needs in the customary way the utility companies have had to look elsewhere for new sources of fuel to fill this energy gap, and so coal and uranium are presented with a magnificent opportunity. Until recently, coal, long established in the rest of the U. S., has played an insignificant role in the generation of power in the Far West. The large coal deposits are located at great distances from the market. Cooling water is in short supply. Rail or water transportation is not readily available to service the coal deposits. However, recent technological advances in the generation and transmission of electricity have overcome these handicaps and placed coal very much in the competitive race. Mine-mouth power plants have come into existence, and many more coal-fired thermal plants are in the offing.