Constraints on the commercialization of oil shale

Beyond supporting reseearch, development, and demonstration projects, government energy policy is directed toward introducing new energy technologies into commercial use. Considerable policy attention has been focused on the commercialization of energy process plants that produce substitutes for imported petroleum and natural gas. These include the production of crude oil from oil shale and gas from coal or biomass. Commercialization refers to the adoption of a technology for general use be the private sector after moset questions of technical feasibility have been resolved. This report discusses the principle economic and institutional problems surrounding the commercialization of surface oil shale technologies. This study was conducted for the Department of Energy, as part of a Rand program of research and policy analysis. A companion report by William F. Hederman, Jr., "Prospects for the commercialization of high-bitu coal gasification", R-2294-DOE, April 1978, addresses similar economic and institutional issues arising in the commercialization of synthetic natural gas from coal.