National Coal Council 
celebrates 20th Anniversary

Coal Leader
    

    The National Coal Council members recently celebrated its 20th Anniversary in Washington, DC. Thomas G. Kraemer, Chair of NCC, is also group vice president of the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Railway Company, Ft. Worth, Texas, welcomed the special guests and members. Mr. Kraemer said the report on new coal-based power plants, requested by Secretary Abraham on December 3, 2003, would stress “…incentives for additional emissions’ reductions including evaluating and replacing the oldest portion of our coal-fired power plant fleet with more efficient and lower emitting plants.” Kraemer also noted “the importance of coal to the nation,” explaining that “…its employment as a fuel accounts for more than 50% of the electricity generated in the United States.”
    Gail Norton, Secretary, U. S. Department of Interior, attended the reception and thanked the Council for its work in providing studies about coal, cleaner technologies and more efficient means of using coal. 

    Robert A. “Bob” Beck, NCC Executive Vice President added: “…the proven and mineable reserves of coal in this country are almost without limit and able to be supplied without reasonable fear of interruption. It is power for America from America. It behooves us as a nation to support its use as a clean and environmentally acceptable fuel to meet the nation’s growing electricity demands.”
    The National Coal Council (NCC) was originally chartered in 1984 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and has as its purpose “…to advise, inform and make recommendations to the Secretary of Energy on any matter requested by the Secretary relating to coal or the coal industry.”

    The meeting marking the 20th anniversary of the Coal Council featured a musical program courtesy of the “gifted students of the world famous Duke Ellington School of the Arts headquartered in Washington, DC.  cl

    
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