n522  0043  18 Sep 80
 
BC-ENERGY-09-18
    By Tom Furlong
    (c) 1980 Chicago Sun-Times (Field News Service)
    Solar power, still an infant in most places, is starting to kick the
slats of out of the cradle in California.
    The California Public Utilities Commission has just announced a
$183-million program that will force several utilities in the state
to provide rebates and low-interest loans to homeowners wanting to
install solar-powered water heaters.
    The PUC said homeowners with electric water heaters could get a
rebate of $720, which amounts to almost a quarter of the $3,000 cost
of the new heaters. Those owning gas water heaters could either get a
rebate of almost $1,000, or receive a 6-percent, utility-financed
20-year loan.
    It's estimated the program could cut oil consumption by only 1
million barrels a year, or 2,700 barrels a day. Despite the meager
savings, the program is being hailed as a ''giant step'' forward for
solar power.
    -o-
    More bad news for the Midwest coal industry. The Peabody Coal Co.,
one of the largest coal mine operators in Illinois, says it's
suspending operations at two of its mines in western Kentucky because
of sagging demand.
    Peabody has closed several mines in the past year in the Midwest,
including one at Shawneetown in southern Illinois.
    Peabody can't find buyers for the coal because its 3-percent sulfur
content makes it unacceptable environmentally.
    -o-
    Developing countries, already buffeted badly by the rising price of
oil, are facing a second energy crisis, and it may be worse than the
first one because it strikes closer to home.
    It seems that firewood, a traditional source of cooking and heating
fuel in homes throughout the Third World, is in great demand as
supplies have failed to keep up with rising demand, according to a
report just released by the World Bank.
    The report, titled ''Energy in the Developing Countries,'' says the
rural poor often must walk several hours a day to find wood that was
once located in abundance nearby, while the urban poor are spending
larger and larger proportions of their income on firewood.
    To make matters worse, the bank said, animal and crop residues are
being burned in place of the wood, depriving the soil of valuable
nutrients. The bank further notes that if kerosene were used as a
replacement for firewood, it would have a dramatic spiraling impact
on world demand for crude oil.
    -o-
    A Carter administration panel doesn't like what the Department of
Energy is proposing to do about energy efficiency standards for
appliances.
    An administration board known as the Regulatory Analysis Review
Group says the DOE's proposed rules on appliance energy efficiency
would force costly changes in the design and production of existing
appliances. The panel suggested the DOE go back to the drawing board
and come up with some less expensive suggestions.
    The DOE admits the cost of its rules may be in the area of $10
billion, but says the $30 billion in energy savings makes the rules
well worth the price.
    -o-
    The states with the most hostile utility regulatory agencies are
Montana and South Dakota, while those Indiana and Texas are rated
tops as far as the utilities are concerned.
    That summation comes from Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith,
which periodically rates the states on their regulatory environment.
    ''Regulation is not a simple matter of rate of return,'' the report
notes. ''It has many aspects such as return on equity, the time it
takes to get a decision, the account procedures prescribed or
proscribed, what constitutes rate base, how the test period is
selected, and how current is the fuel adjustment clause.''
    ENDIT FURLONG
    
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