Executive Energy Messages

For most of our history, a plentiful supply of energy is something the American people have taken very much for granted. In the past twenty years alone, we have been able to double our consumption of energy without exhausting the supply. But the assumption that sufficient energy will always be readily available has been brought sharply into question within the last year. The brownouts that have affected some areas of our country, the possible shortages of fuel that were threatened last fall, the sharp increases in certain fuel prices and our growing awareness of the environmental consequences of energy production have all demonstrated that we cannot take our energy supply for granted any longer.

A sufficient supply of clean energy is essential if we are to sustain healthy economic growth and improve the quality of our national life. I am therefore announcing today a broad range of actions to ensure an adequate supply of clean energy for the years ahead. Private industry, of course, will still pay the major role in providing our energy, but Government can do a great deal to help in meeting this challenge. My program includes the following elements:

To Facilitate Research and Development for Clean Energy:

-A commitment to complete the successful demonstration of the liquid metal fast breeder reactor by 1980.

-More than twice as much Federal support for sulfur oxide control demonstration projects in Fiscal Year 1972.

-An expanded program to convert coal into a clean gaseous fuel. -Support for a variety of other energy research projects in fields such as fusion power, magnetohydrodynamic power cycles, and underground electric transmission.

To Make Available the Energy Resources on Federal Lands: -Acceleration of oil and gas lease sales on the Outer Continental Shelf, along with stringent controls to protect the environment. -A leasing program to develop our vast oil shale resources, pro

vided that environmental questions can be satisfactorily resolved. -Development of a geothermal leasing program beginning this fall. To Assure a Timely Supply of Nuclear Fuels:

-Begin work to modernize and expand our uranium enrichment capacity.

To Use Our Energy More Wisely:

-A New Federal Housing Administration standard requiring additional insulation in new federally insured homes.

-Development and publication of additional information on how consumers can use energy more efficiently.

-Other efforts to encourage energy conservation.

To Balance Environmental and Energy Needs:

-A system of long-range open planning of electric power plant sites and transmission line routes with approval by a State or regional agency before construction.

-An incentive charge to reduce sulfur oxide emissions and to support further research.

To Organize Federal Efforts More Effectively:

-A single structure within the Department of Natural Resources uniting all important energy resource development programs.

THE NATURE OF THE CURRENT PROBLEM

A major cause of our recent energy problems has been the sharp increase in demand that began about 1967. For decades, energy consumption had generally grown at a slower rate than the national output of goods and services. But in the last four years it has been growing at a faster pace and forecasts of energy demand a decade from now have been undergoing significant upward revisions.

This accelerated growth in demand results partly from the fact that energy has been relatively inexpensive in this country. During the last decade, the prices of oil, coal, natural gas and electricity have increased at a much slower rate than consumer prices as a whole. Energy has been an attractive bargian in this country-and demand has responded accordingly.

In the years ahead, the needs of a growing economy will further stimulate this demand. And the new emphasis on environmental protection means that the demand for cleaner fuels will be especially acute. The primary cause of air pollution, for example, is the burning of fossil fuels in homes, in cars, in factories and in power plants. If we are to meet our new national air quality standards, it will be essential for us to use stack gas cleaning systems in our large power and other industrial plants and to use cleaner fuels in virtually all of our new residential, commercial and industrial facilities, and in some of our older facilities as well.

Together, these two factors-growing demand for energy and growing emphasis on cleaner fuels-will create an extraordinary pressure on our fuel supplies.

The task of providing sufficient clean energy is made especially difficult by the long lead times required to increase energy supply. To move from geological exploration to oil and gas well production now takes

from 3 to 7 years. New coal mines typically require 3 to 5 years to reach the production stage and it takes 5 to 7 years to complete a large steam power plant. The development of the new technology required to minimize environmental damage can further delay the provision of additional energy. If we are to take full advantage of our enormous coal resources, for example, we will need mining systems that do not impair the health and safety of miners or degrade the landscape and combustion systems that do not emit harmful quantities of sulfur oxides, other noxious gases, and particulates into the atmosphere. But such systems may take several years to reach satisfactory performance. That is why our efforts to expand the supply of clean energy in America must immediately be stepped up.

1. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT GOALS FOR CLEAN ENERGY

Our past research in this critical field has produced many promising leads. Now we must move quickly to demonstrate the best of these new concepts on a commercial scale. Industry should play the major role in this area, but government can help by providing technical leadership and by sharing a portion of the risk for costly demonstration plants. The time has now come for government and industry to commit themselves to a joint effort to achieve commercial scale demonstrations in the most crucial and most promising clean energy development areas the fast breeder reactor, sulfur oxide control technology and coal gasification.

a. Sulfur Oxide Control Technology

A major bottleneck in our clean energy program is the fact that we cannot now burn coal or oil without discharging its sulfur content into the air. We need new technology which will make it possible to remove the sulfur before it is emitted to the air.

Working together, industry and government have developed a variety of approaches to this problem. However, the new air quality standards promulgated under the Clean Air Amendments of 1970 require an even more rapid development of a suitable range of stack gas cleaning techniques for removing sulfur oxides. I have therefore requested funds in my 1972 budget to permit the Environmental Protection Agency to devote an additional $15 million to this area, more than doubling the level of our previous efforts. This expansion means that a total of six different techniques can be demonstrated in partnership with industry during the next three or four years. b. Nuclear Breeder Reactor.

Our best hope today for meeting the Nation's growing demand for economical clean energy lies with the fast breeder reactor. Because of its highly efficient use of nuclear fuel, the breeder reactor could extend the life of our natural uranium fuel supply from decades to centuries, with far less impact on the environment than the power plants which are operating today.

For several years, the Atomic Energy Commission has placed the highest priority on developing the liquid metal fast breeder. Now this project is ready to move out of the laboratory and into the demonstration phase with a commercial size plant. But there still are major technical and financial obstacles to the construction of a demonstration

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Executive Energy Messages: Printed at the Request of Henry M. Jackson ...