Electric utilities recognize that the industry is changing, mining conditions are more difficult, and suppliers must address capital concerns in a highly difficult environment. Buyers acknowledge that they might play a role in easing supplier problems. But they don't anticipate a return to the long-term contracts commonly signed 30 years ago. Many of those deals turned out to be disastrous. "I think you'll see longer-term contracts signed," Cinergy's Tom Mason said during the North Carolina Coal Institute's Spring Meeting, "but longer-term will mean, instead of three to five years, five to seven." Al Pitcher of Progress Fuels echoed that opinion. "We are in a new age." Pitcher said, but there won't be many 20-year contracts and the like.
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