Leading trends in environmental regulation that affect energy development. Final report

Technical Report · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5465299· OSTI ID:5465299

Steele, R V; Attaway, L D; Christerson, J A; Kikel, D A; Kuebler, J D; Lupatkin, B M; Liu, C S; Meyer, R; Peyton, T O; Sussin, M H

Major environmental issues that are likely to affect the implementation of energy technologies between now and the year 2000 are identified and assessed. The energy technologies specifically addressed are: oil recovery and processing; gas recovery and processing; coal liquefaction; coal gasification (surface); in situ coal gasification; direct coal combustion; advanced power systems; magnetohydrodynamics; surface oil shale retorting; true and modified in situ oil shale retorting; geothermal energy; biomass energy conversion; and nuclear power (fission). Environmental analyses of these technologies included, in addition to the main processing steps, the complete fuel cycle from resource extraction to end use. A comprehensive survey of the environmental community (including environmental groups, researchers, and regulatory agencies) was carried out in parallel with an analysis of the technologies to identify important future environmental issues. Each of the final 20 issues selected by the project staff has the following common attributes: consensus of the environmental community that the issue is important; it is a likely candidate for future regulatory action; it deals with a major environmental aspect of energy development. The analyses of the 20 major issues address their environmental problem areas, current regulatory status, and the impact of future regulations. These analyses are followed by a quantitative assessment of the impact on energy costs and nationwide pollutant emissions of possible future regulations. This is accomplished by employing the Strategic Environmental Assessment System (SEAS) for a subset of the 20 major issues. The report concludes with a more general discussion of the impact of environmental regulatory action on energy development.

• Research Organization: Flow Resources Corp., San Rafael, CA (USA); International Research and Technology Corp., McLean, VA (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-78EV01682
• OSTI ID: 5465299
• Report Number(s): DOE/EV-01682
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
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11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
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AIR POLLUTION
BIOMASS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COAL
COAL GASIFICATION
COAL LIQUEFACTION
COMBUSTION
CONVERSION
COST
DATA
DATA COMPILATION
DATA FORMS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ENERGY
ENERGY CONVERSION
ENERGY SOURCE DEVELOPMENT
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FLUID MECHANICS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL CYCLE
FUELS
GASIFICATION
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
HYDRODYNAMICS
IN-SITU GASIFICATION
IN-SITU PROCESSING
IN-SITU RETORTING
INFORMATION
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
LAND POLLUTION
LIQUEFACTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MANAGEMENT
MECHANICS
MINING
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR ENERGY
NUMERICAL DATA
OIL SHALES
OXIDATION
PETROLEUM
PLANNING
POLLUTION
PROCESSING
RECOMMENDATIONS
REGULATIONS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
RETORTING
REVIEWS
RISK ASSESSMENT
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
TABLES
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WATER POLLUTION