An industrial development involves the conversion of biomass, through fermentation, to useful chemical products and the gasification of municiple wastes to produce steam for electricity generation. These gases may also serve as chemical feedstocks. (Author/MA)

Concern for long-term availability of nonrenewable resources has fostered proposals for substitution with renewable resources. Forest products could become the basis for materials substitution and production. Further feasibility studies are needed to determine the technical, economic, energy, and environmental aspects of substitution. (MR)

Outlines a Federal Power Commission report that lends credence to charges by several prominent petroleum researchers that the United States Geological Survey has consistently and hugely over estimated the amount of economically recoverable oil and gas left to be discovered in the United States. (Author/GS)

Municipal solid waste disposal is becoming complex as costs, wastes, and environmental restrictions increase. Recovery and recycling of materials presents problems of financing, ownership, and operation, technology, and marketing. Energy and materials recovery offers long-term economic and environmental incentives in terms of growing shortages and…

Reports on a Supreme Court ruling giving the federal government jurisdiction over substantial areas of the outer continental shelf (OCS) which opens the door for a federal program of OCS leasing. (GS)

Presents the contention that in light of a historical perspective to technology and growth an optimistic view of the possibility for continuous technological development is not foolish. (GS)

Processing of materials could become energy-limited rather than resource-limited. Methods to extract metals, industrial minerals, and energy materials and convert them to useful states requires more than one-fifth of the United States energy budget. Energy accounting by industries must include a total systems analysis of costs to insure net energy…

Our energy growth is slowing down and will level off in the 1990s. Our oil and gas production passed a peak in the early 1970s. Coal is the only fossil fuel capable of increased production. Finding rates for petroleum, natural gas, and uranium are less than half what they were twenty years ago. (Author/BB)