Word: synfuels
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...book went to press, of course, before President Carter made his bold proposal for a crash program to produce synthetic fuels from sources as varied as shale, coal, sugar beets and even garbage. Congressmen are increasingly worried that his program may be too costly, too ambitious, too bureaucratic. Yet synfuel is precisely the sort of project, though dismissed by the Harvard experts in advance, that holds tremendous promise. Already, synfuel is being produced economically abroad. For the U.S. to downplay it and put most of its chips on solar and conservation would...
...Carter's program would have little direct, short-term impact on the economy. It will take time for the biggest construction contracts to be let out, for the huge rail and mining jobs to get under way. Actually building a synfuel plant could require five years or more, and environmental objections and court protests might drag out projects even longer. The size of the spending appears smaller when reckoned at an average $14 billion a year, spread out over ten years. That is a relatively small part of an economy that now produces $2.3 trillion worth of goods...
...Government would offer many incentives for private firms to produce oil-like liquids and natural gas from the nation's plentiful coal, shale rock and biomass.* Congressmen are infatuated with the idea of synthetic-fuel production. Cracks Representative Clarence Brown of Ohio: "Every committee in Congress has a synfuel bill, except the Ethics Committee...
Because of inflation and increasing costs of environmental controls, price predictions for building synfuel plants have been rising steadily. The new range is 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...
...local resistance to coal gasification and liquefaction plants because they pollute the air with fumes from burning and lead to a noisy, dust-spewing increase in rail traffic to bring in the coal. On the other side, labor unions and various local groups will be eager to attract synfuel plants-particularly in Appalachia-because they will bring jobs and wealth...