Word: crude
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...common view abroad was that the President omitted the two key elements: decontrol of U.S. crude oil prices so that domestic gasoline and heating fuel prices would rise to world levels (Americans still pay less than one half as much for gasoline and fuel oil as Europeans) and an emphasis on expanding nuclear energy. Commented Switzerland's Journal de Geneve: "The President feared, not without reason, that decontrol would push U.S. inflation to an intolerable level. But that also would have been a return to truth in pricing, which is the basis of American capitalism...
...public sense of crisis brought on by the exasperating gasoline lines gave the President the chance to win bold action on long-range plans. That sense of crisis is ebbing rapidly, and gasoline lines are shortening drastically as a result of Saudi Arabia's decision to increase crude production. The less the feeling of urgency, the greater the opportunity for quarreling special interest groups to pick the program apart...
Even if Congress rejects some parts of Jimmy Carter's ambitious new design, the rising price of petroleum seems destined to awaken the nation from its energy stupor. As the cost of crude climbs, more and more technologies-some of them new and exotic, others as familiar as moonshine stills and windjammer sailing ships-are beginning to come on stream to conserve fuel and produce energy for the 1980s from unconventional sources. Clever inventors and canny investors see prospects of becoming instant energy millionaires. Long stagnant industries such as coal and steel stand to recover and prosper. Resource-rich...
Though the U.S. has some oil-saturated tar sands, they are not large or accessible enough to justify expensive exploitation by the Government. But some 76 billion bbl. in oil, about three times the nation's proven reserves of conventional crude, are known to be recoverable from the shale rock concentrated in western Colorado and stretching into Utah and Wyoming. No plants are in operation at present, but at least five companies are running experimental digs in the area. To produce a barrel of oil, about 1½ tons of rock must be mined and heated...
...from $1 billion to $3 billion for an oil shale or coal liquefaction plant that would produce 50,000 to 100,000 bbl. a day. A coal gasification plant would run some $1.5 billion. Ever climbing costs have kept estimated prices of producing synfuels persistently dancing ahead of world crude prices. In 1973, when oil was $3.50 a bbl., oil from shale was figured at $4.50. Just before OPEC'S latest price rise, when crude was selling at $17 a bbl., shale oil was reckoned to cost $25 and oil from coal about...