Presentation by E. W. Littlefield on behalf of the American Mining Congress at the Federal Energy Administration's Project Independence Public Hearing, San Francisco, California, October 9, 1974 I am Edmund W. Littlefield, Chairman, Utah International Inc. and speaking today for the American Mining Congress as Chairman of its Energy Resources Policy Committee. The American Mining Congress is a national trade association of the mining companies that produce most of the nation's metals and industrial, agricultural and other minerals. Its member firms have extensive coal mining operations throughout the country and are responsible for most of the uranium production in the United States. We are seriously concerned with the energy situation confronting the nation today. The emergence since World War II of oil and gas as the source of over three-fourths of the energy consumed domestically, the declining capability of domestic production to meet demand for these fuels, and the absence of a practical national plan to encourage vigorous expansion of the production and use of available domestic solid fuels have created for this country a hazardous and unacceptable posture of importing a too large and growing percentage of its energy requirements. Consequently, it is imperative that the United States develop and implement a realistic national energy plan that will assure a sufficient increase in supplies of energy from secure domestic sources. The objectives of such a plan should be to serve the nation by: Assuring adequate supplies of energy for national security; Encouraging the development of domestic energy sources so that secure supplies of fuel will be readily available at reasonable cost to support continuing economic progress; Reducing balance of trade pressures