Europe's coal miners, who are as politically potent and as well protected as America's farmers, are in a querulous mood. In past months, miners have staged angry protest marches in Germany's Ruhr and battled against truncheon-swinging police in Belgium (toll: two dead). Behind this unrest is an upheaval in the sources of energy that are at the root of Europe's economic strength. As it has in the U.S., coal is losing its primacy to gas, oil and nuclear energy. The result is fewer jobs for miners but more opportunities for those who can exploit Europe's new power.
In the Hole. Common market nations now get only 37% of their energy from coal, compared with 45% from oil and the rest from other sources. In The Netherlands, some of Europe's best mines are being shuttered; the Dutch State Mines are diversifying, already earn more from chemicals than from coal, and are retraining miners to make Daf cars. Since 1957, the number of mines in Germany has been cut from 173 to 105, and 24 more are slated for extinction. Britain's 450,000-man mining force is declining by 1,000 a week.
Coal's newest competitor is natural gas, which lately has been discovered in much greater quantities than anyone had expected. Dutch gas resources have proved to be the world's second richest (after the U.S.'s), and in Britain, there have been five major strikes in the North Sea and Yorkshire since last fall. A consortium of the British government's Gas Council and three U.S.owned companies reported last week that a newly found well yields 25 million cu. ft. of gas daily, double the group's earlier claims.
The recent finds have a potential of yielding up to 2 billion cu. ft. daily, double present consumption. Ultimately, the gas finds will cut Britain's energy costs, strengthen its foreign-exchange reserves by reducing fuel imports.
Gone Fission. Nuclear power is also creating a profound reaction in Europe. From nearly three dozen plants, Europe last year generated nuclear energy equal to 2,000,000 tons of coal; by 1980, the figure is expected to rise to 125 million tons. Britain now has more nuclear-produced power than all the rest of the world; France, which is short of other power sources, is trying to catch up. The Fifth Plan provides for starts on five to eight reactors by 1975.
This year in Germany, coal will be replaced as the primary energy source for the first time—by oil. The oil boom, however, is of little benefit to German companies, because most of the petroleum is supplied and refined by international giants. These companies—Esso, Caltex, British Petroleum, Shell—have also steadily gained control of distribution in Germany until there was only one wholly German-owned company left, Deutsche Erdöl AG. Last week, despite initial objections by the Bonn government, shareholders decided overwhelmingly to sell that lone holdout for about $160 million to Texaco.