Page 12 RAIN December 1980 Winona La Duke © 1980 President Carter's two-pronged approach to energy problems-the Energy Mobilization Board, and the Synthetic Fuels Bill-are likely to change the face of the nation permanently. The administration's mark of 2 million barrels of synthetic fuels per day by 1990 and the $88 billion subsidy to the industry have made a very expensive, relatively untested technology possible. It is surprising, given how little is known about the history, technology, environmental and economic aspects of synthetic fuels development, that so many plants are predicted and are going relatively unnoticed as they sprout up in the coal fields of America. Coal gasification originated in World War II. As the machinery and ground troops of the Third Reich fqund they could not rely on foreign oil, Germany's coal reserves became Nazi oil. The first coal gasification plant operated at a capacity of 17,000 barrels per day, stabilizing the armies and development of Germany. South Africa has been in a situation similar to Hitler's Germany. Sanctions against the South African government, initiated by the United Nations, have put the minority regime into a precarious position in regard to further industrialization. South Africa has been preparing for these economic sanctions since the early 1950s. Having no oil of its "own," the South African government constructed a coal gasification plant, SASOL I, which became operational in 1955. Of the oil South Africa imported, 90 percent came from Iran. After the revolution, Iranian oil exports to the R.S.A. were abruptly cut off, forcing South Africa to either buy oil at the spot market price, or develop its own alternatives. Two coal gasification plants, SASOL II and III, are nearing completion, the latter scheduled for late 1982. When complete, these plants will literally become the backbone of South African industrialization, a stabilization made possible primarily by a U.S. -based corporation. Black liberation forces have carefully monitored the development of the South African synthetic fuels facility, and in 1980 managed to postpone the timeline for South African energy independencethe African National Congress bombed the storage tanks at two of the refineries in early June. The introduction ·of the synthetic fuels industry to North America promises to be quite a sensational event. According to a 1976 report of the MITRE Corporation, 24 "pilot projects" have been in operation in the United States for several years. For various reasons, however, it appears that the technology or economics of the U.S. synthetic fuels facilities are not deemed to be "the state of the art" at this time. In 1979 the Department of Energy obtained State Department clearance to buy the SASOL I Data Bank from The introduction of the synthetic fuels industry to North America promises to be quite a sensational event. the South African government. Synthetic fuels facilities are now predicted for virtually every coal rich area in the United States. In the first Synfuels Funding -Cycle, the Department of Energy awarded monies to corporations interested in building plants almost everywhere-from Maine and Alaska to New Mexico. The West, of course, will receive a good share both of funding and eventually facilities-24 "synfuels" plants are projected for the western coal fields. From Black to Red-Bantustans to Reservations On July 10, 1980, the Crow tribal council received a $2.7 million grant from the Department of Energy to conduct a feasibility study on a reservation-based coal gasificat1on plant. Other reservations which, according to the Council of Energy Resource Tribes, are likely sites for on/off-reservation synfuels facilities include Northern Ute (Colorado), Navajo (Four Corners), and the Fort Peck reserSouth Africa's Synfuels facility-constructed by the U.S.-base< FROM Sou· TOTHEHIGI vation in Montana. For such impoverished reservations, a synfuels facility estimated to cost up to $4 billion (just for construction) is an enormous expenditure; however, some very powerful interests and financial institutions appear prepared to put the plants on the reservations at all costs. According to Business Week (March 24, 1980), Equitable Life Assurance of New York has agreed as a first step to "help the Crows get the $900 million in financing needed to build their 800-megawatt power project." As an Equitable official notes, "Energy developments owned by Indian tribes have the potential to become excellent investment opportunities." Equitable is in a very good position to know these things. Aside from being a participant in the Peabody Coal Holding Company (a company which controls fully one-third of all Indian coal leases and incidentally an 11,000-acre lease on the Crow reservation), Equitable is a major stockholder in most energy corpora-
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