Evening star., 1943-11-07
0'Mahoney Foresees
Synthetic Oil as Big
Postwar Business
BY J, A, O'LEARY,

Manufacture of synthetic gasolin.
and oil from coal is one OF the nev
industries this country has chanc,
to develop in helping to solve post.
war economic problems, Senator
OMahoney. Democrat, of Wyoming
declared last night.
He was commenting on a Dill Il
be voted on in the Senate this weel
authorizing $3O,000,O0O for estab.
lishment by the Interior Depart.
ment of one or more demonstration
plants to encourage private indus.
try to enter the field of syntheti,
liquid fuels.
Il regard this as an example o1
the sort of thing the Governmen
can do to provide jobs for the post.
war period" the Wyoming Senator
said. 1T Is new industry thai
will produce a commodity, and it i.
only by production that we can pay
of the public debt"
Bill Amended.
In hearings held throughout the
country last summer, Senator OMa-
honey said the only doubt expressed
about the bill was that it might
have a tendency to put the Gov
ernment into competition with pri-
vate industry. That was not the
intent of the sponsors or the In
terror Department, the Senator said
and an amendment has been in
serted, as follows:
THE plants shall be of the mini
mum size which will allow the Gov
ernment to furnish industry the
necessary cost and engineering data
for the development of a synthetic
liquid fuel industry and of such size
that the combined product of all
the plants constructed in accord
ance with this act will not consti-
tute commercially significant
amount of the total national COM
mercial sale and distribution of
petroleum and petroleum products. "
The Bureau of Mines already has
a small laboratory plant at Pitts
burgh, and has developed processes
for producing petroleum products
from coal, oil shale and gases. But
Secretary of the Interior Ickes ad-
vised Congress the time has come
when we must get out of the test
tube stage and into actual produc-
ton"
Will Present Charts.
Senator OMahoney has prepared
a series of charts to demonstrate to
the Senate Tuesday how this coun-
try is rapidly consuming its oil re-
serves and how the rate Of new
discovery has declined in recent
years.
There can be no doubt now that
aviation will be one of the principal
industries toward which the world
will turn after the war" said Sena-
tor O'Mahoney. If, however, this
country is to maintain its leadership
in the air it must take steps now to
guarantee a sure and certain sup
ply of LIQUID fuel. The sensible
thing to do is to get ready to use
other sources of liquid fuel"
Germany, Japan and England
already have turned to synthetic
liquid fuel production, the Senator
said, adding:
When Hitler came into power
he concentrated on the hydrogena-
ton Of coal process, until in 1912
he obtained 100000 barrels OF
gasoline from coal. 1t made Ger
many practically independent OF
the world for supply"
Trying to Cut Cost.
Although the processes have been
worked out, Senator OMahoney
said one of the purposes of the bill
is to find ways of lowering the cost
of production. Senator O'Mahoney
said testimony presented to Repre-
sentative Randolphs committee in
the House at prior session Of Con-
gress indicated that, with a plant
production of 10000 barrels a day
the cost of production would be 16
cents a gallon. Some other esti-
mates, he said, run as low as II
cents.
He said the opportunity for post
war employment would not be so
much in the demonstration plants,
but in the entrance Of private in
dustry into this new field of pro-
duction after its commercial feasi-
bility has been demonstrated. The
theory of the bill is that the find
ings and experience of the demon
stration plants would be made avail
able to industry, so that private
enterprise could embark on syn
thetic oil production on the scale
necessary to insure an adequate fu-
ture fuel supply