https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060071515
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“Government agencies are easily born, but they never seem to die. Rarely do they even fade away. But at 5 P.M. today the Government’s Synthetic Fuels Corporation closed its doors forever.”
– “U.S. Synthetic Fuel Corporation Shuts Down,” New York Times, April 19, 1986, p. 46.
Only occasionally in U.S. energy history has a government energy agency disbanded. Almost all have been after wartime when bureaucracies were disbanded (such as World War II’s U.S. Petroleum Administration for War).
The demise of the United States Synthetic Fuels Corporation (SFC) in 1986 was a rarity. Established under the Energy Security Act of 1980, and called by President Jimmy Carter “the cornerstone of U.S. energy policy,” the SFC was premised on a belief in the increasing scarcity of crude oil and natural gas–and thus the need to turn coal into (synthetic) oil and gas.…
“Gore the Policy Apostle can utter statements that most colleagues would regard as wildly impolitic: calling for elimination of the internal combustion engine by 2020 or denouncing excessive consumerism in Western nations as evidence of a ‘dysfunctional civilization.’ Gore the Politician, say some of these people, is prone to brooding over the electoral risks of his beliefs.”
“… environmentalists note that the [Clinton/Gore] administration since [the Kyoto Protocol of 1997] has done little to build support for the treaty’s passage or to reduce U.S. emissions.”
– John F. Harris and Ellen Nakashima, “Gore’s Greenness Fades,” Washington Post, February 28, 2000.
A niche of MasterResource is remembering the past to inform the present in energy/environmental policy debates. With a strong worldview and historical perspective, this emphasis is a rich vein to mine.…