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Show The Industries of the Future strategy aligns Federal investments in technology research, development, and deployment with the needs and expectations of technology users in the private sector. As industrial R&D budgets are eroded in today's intensely competitive business environment, the strategy is designed to provide the coordination and careful focus the resources sorely needed . for the advancement of industrial technology. The Industries of the Future approach optimizes the complementary strengths of industry and government. Each industry's vision reflects the dynamic impact of market, business, social and regulatory drivers in that industry. The vision is developed by industry, for industry, and provides a framework for shaping major advancements in technologies. Each industry then prepares a technology road map to identify gaps and the developments needed to reach vision goals. DOE facilitates or assists in roadmap preparation, if and as needed. DOE then works with industry to shape an implementation plan which, when completed, will lead to a portfolio of near-, medium-, and long ferm research, development and deployment aCtivities. The objective is to leverage scarce government and industry resources for maximum results. OIT generally invests in areas of high payoff for the public and in areas where the level of risk is too high for individual companies to assume alone. Almost all projects involve industry cost sharing, both to ensure industry's commitment to the technologies selected and to enhance the probability of subsequent commercialization. The strategy is also designed to result in intra- and interagency alliances within government. - FOCUS TO YIELD THE BIGGEST RETURNS The seven industries employ nearly 3 million people directly and four. times that number 'are employed by firms providing supplies and services. They also provide the basic materials essential to the entire U. S. manufacturing sector, which tLlrns them into products for the nation. Over the past two decades, spending on pollution control by these industries has risen at a rate that cannot be sustained in the future without jeopardizing the survival and competitiveness of their operations in the United States. U. S. petroleum refineries, for example, face estimated expenditures of $37 billion between 1991 and 2000 to comply with existing and proposed regulations - an amount that exceeds their entire 1991 fixed-asset base. The Industries of the Future strategy is designed to stimulate the development and use of technologies that increase energy efficiency and lower the costs of environmental protection and regulatory compliance by these industries. Sustaining U. S. leadership in these seven industries is critically important to retaining the technological know-how and the knowledge-based jobs clustered around them. Should these capital-intensive industries become uncompetitive in the world economy, investment would inevitably migrate to more competitive regions and the nation would loose those technological capabilities and the high-p.aying jobs so important to economic health. FOCUS ON THE FUTURE In order to look at the future, it is important to see where industry stands today in the types of fuels it uses and what it uses the fuels for. The fuels which U. S. Industry uses to supply its energy are shown in Table 1. The data cover fuel used in boilers, process heaters, furnaces and fuel used to generate internally consumed electricity. (The latter tends to overweigh slightly the use of natural gas and solid waste fuels). . 3 |