Hard Coal for Homes Is Hard to Get January 15, 1981

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/15/nyregion/hard-c ... o-get.html

January 15, 1981
HARD COAL FOR HOMES IS HARD TO GET
By WILLIAM E. GEIST

Tens of thousands of residents in the New York metropolitan area want coal for home heating and cannot get it. Coal dealers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut report that residential customers are offering more than their asking prices - already inflated because of demand - and one said he was being offered $50 bribes to move customers up on his waiting list. The dealers say many customers are paying for more coal and better grades of it than they are actually receiving.

''People are literally begging me for coal,'' said a spokesman for the Coalrite Corporation on Long Island, the area with the most severe shortages. ''I post a sign that the coal yard will be open for a couple of hours, and 30 people line up for small rations, just a few days' supply, which is all I can give them. I have to actually give out numbers.''