Business: Synfuel Success

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In addition to the money for synfuels, which will be administered in large part by a Synthetic Fuels Corporation reminiscent of the Energy Security Corporation that Carter had initially proposed, the bill also contains a nearly $6 billion grab bag of energy odds and ends. Included are $3 billion for various solar and conservation programs over the next three to four years, $850 million in subsidies to spur the commercial production of ethanol, which can be mixed with gasoline to make gasohol and $600 million for biomass energy, such as that derived from turning municipal garbage into fuel. Finally, the bill included a provision to fill the National Strategic Petroleum Reserve. For months the Department of Energy has delayed buying oil for the reserve largely because of opposition from Saudi Arabia. The 750 million-bbl. stockpile of oil would be used in case of another cutoff of petroleum from the Middle East.

Minor details of the bill still remain to be resolved, and Congress has yet to give its final approval to the creation of an Energy Mobilization Board, which is designed to cut through bureaucratic red tape and get the synfuel plants and other priority energy projects completed. Yet last week's action by the congressional conferees essentially completes work on the omnibus energy package that Carter proposed almost one year ago. ∎