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Show National security feiExen out otf syn-tf uels development By Helene C. Monberg ' Vernal Express Washington Correspondent Washington The U.S. government has dropped the "national security argument" out of the need to develop synthetic fuels in this county, and that has resulted in a marked slow-down in such development, particularly oil shale, according to Michael S. Koleda, president of the National Council on Synthetic Fuels Production. Of the dozen or so syn-fuels projects which are continuing presently along pre-determined schedules, the Union Oil Co. Parashute Creek project and the Geokinetics project in Eastern Utah are the only oil shale projects which show promise of continuing development pretty much "as is," according to Council experts and experts at the Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Synthetic Fuels , Corp, (SFC). Many other oil shale projects have been slowed, and work on the Colony project also in Parchute Creek in the Piceance Creek Basin and on Rio Blanco project in Piceance have been suspended, their sponsors announced early this month. . "We believe that national security is an argument to be used for the development of syn-fuels, including oil shale. But it isn't being made by this Administration," Koleda told this correspondent in an interview this past week. "The Administration seems to be relying on a substantial stepped-up rate to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a strengthened military capability to respond to a Middle East situation that threatens the flow of oil, and a shift of responsibility to the private sector for energy production and emergency allocation decisions. It also has been intent on decontrol" of petroleum products, Koleda stated. A DOE spokesman agreed with Koleda. "The Carter Administration favored syn-fuels development from the laboratory to the marketplace. The Reagan Administration will back research only for the earliest stages. We had $1 billion in our syn-fuels research program (at DOE) for fiscal year 1981. "The (Reagan) Administration budget request for 1983 is about $100 million. We might get up to $200 million, but that will be due solely to Congress, not to the Administration," the DOE spokesman told this correspondent. ' Both interviews were held on May 19, and both spokesmen said oil shale development is being hurt more than other syn-fuel developments, for a number of reasons, including political. There is no major push within the Administration by the delegations from Colorado, Utah and Wyoming for oil shale development, as there was in Congress for many years. But members of Congress from coal states are still pushing syn-fuels developments to liquify and gasify coal, they said. Whereas the Carter Administration was hell-bent to get going on syn-fuels development in the late 1970's, and Congress passed a number of bills to move it along, the climate has changed greatly in the past year or so, Koleda said. Among the changes: Congressional pressure rather than Administration support prompted the federal aid given last year to the Great Plains, Union and Colony projects; Energy Secretary James Edwards is the only one using a timetable for syn-fuels development, and he is in the process of phasing out to return to his home in South Carolina later this summer; DOE programs to support various syn-fuels technologies have been terminated or are being terminated; and the SFC has been slow to get off the ground, according to Koleda. Other sources, including a man who recently left SFC, told this correspondent this past week that they questioned how much money the SFC will wind up actually committing to syn-fuels, altho it will have $14.8 billion available by June 30. Chairman Edward Nobel of the SFC board of directors has repeatedly stated that he doubts the Corporation will use much of the money that Congress has provided for syn-fuels development. Koleda said circumstances have not changed as much as the Administration claims relative to syn-fuels development, altho the urgency for such development is no longer so apparent. He reiterated what he told the Utah Energy Development Symposium in Salt Lake City on March 11: "The long-run vulnerability of the U.S.to political instability in the Middle East remains. As long as this vulnerability remains, our freedom to pursue our own course in world affairs is compromised. Consequently, the role of government in the national syn-fuels efforts is critical. ..It remains in the national interest to look beyond the moment and stay the course" in pushing development of syn-fuels. The former SFC official told this correspondent this past week, "What we need is to develop three or four technologies to turn oil shale and oil into syn-fuels and to bring them to the demonstration stage where experts from around the world can look at them and tinker with them and offer suggestions. This happened to the Sosal syn-fuels project in South Africa, and after the new fourth plant is built, South Africa will be close to energy independence," he observed. The United Stated should follow that pattern, he concluded. |
