Government and energy: the demonstration program for synthetic liquid fuels

Thesis/Dissertation · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:6647541

Marchese, J C

In 1943 a coalition of influential federal officials and representatives of special interests, like Western mineral developers and Eastern coal producers and miners, convinced Congress to appropriate funds for a program intended to demonstrate to domestic energy companies the commercial feasibility of producing liquid fuels from solid matter. This action was unprecedented. Traditionally, the private sector had produced, transmitted, and marketed energy and had carried the responsibility of developing new technologies relating to their product. Once started, the demonstration program soon became a two-tiered endeavor. On the one hand, the Office of Synthetic Liquid Fuels, a division of the United States Bureau of Mines, undertook demonstration work with outmoded, inefficient, and costly processes and technologies. On the other hand, it initiated a program of research and development that achieved some positive results but which did not contribute substantially to the demonstration phase of the program. The program lost its political protection after Dwight Eisenhower assumed the presidency in 1953. Anxious to reduce an anticipated budget deficit and to lessen federal involvement in the national economy, the new administration took seriously the advice of executives of oil companies who favored termination of the program. Benefit of political support and lacking a distinguished record of achievement, the program was quickly dismantled and forgotten. This dissertation is the only extended historical account written to date of the federal government's work with synthetic liquid fuels in the 1940's and 1950's.

• OSTI ID: 6647541
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010405* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Hydrogenation & Liquefaction
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
294001 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Coal
295000 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Hydrogen & Synthetic Fuels
COAL LIQUEFACTION
CONVERSION
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
ENERGY CONVERSION
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
LIQUEFACTION
POLITICAL ASPECTS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES