In the United States, synthetic fuels are of increasing importance due to the price of crude oil, and geopolitical and economic considerations.
[2] The oil shale industry expanded immediately before World War I because of limited access to conventional petroleum resources and the mass production of automobiles and trucks, which accompanied an increase in gasoline consumption.
The methodologies employed underwent extensive development in this period, delivering significant increases in efficiency, culminating in the Karrick process.
[3] In the early 1960s TOSCO (The Oil Shale Corporation) opened an underground mine and built an experimental plant near Parachute, Colorado.
The U.S. Department of Energy also formed its Synthetic Fuels Program, which promoted large-scale oil shale development and was involved in the prototype lease tracks in the Piceance Basin of Rio Blanco Country, Colorado.
On 2 May 1982, known as "Black Sunday", Exxon canceled its US$5 billion Colony Shale Oil Project near Parachute, Colorado because of low oil-prices and increased expenses, laying off more than 2,000 workers and leaving a trail of home-foreclosures and small-business bankruptcies.
[7][8] In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 which among other things abolished the United States' Synthetic Liquid Fuels Program.
The U.S. DOE estimates coal reserves at 1,081,279 million short tons (9.81 × 1014 kg), or about 4,786 billion (4.7 trillion) barrels of oil equivalent.
Production of synthetic fuels from U.S. coal assets represents an effective means towards decreasing U.S. reliance on imported oil, reducing trade deficits and providing more economical energy than current markets offer.
Eight years of pilot plant tests by Karrick attest that states, cities or even smaller towns, could make their own gas and generate their own electricity.
In the United States, a number of different synthetic fuels projects are moving forward, with the first expected to enter commercial operation starting in 2013.
In Chapter 141 of title 10 of the United States Code, the head of the agency was authorized to purchase synthetic fuels for a period that does not exceed 25 years.
[16] Substantial interest has also been shown from municipal and commercial vehicle fleet operations, railroads, and even refiners looking to use synthetic fuels as blendstock.
[17] This is demonstrated today in the increasing use of coal gasification particularly in commercial operations such as the Texaco gasifiers at Kingsport, Tennessee, which produces synthetic gas for the production of methanol and other chemicals used in gas-turbine-based power generation.
[18] Numerous US companies (TECO, Progress Energy, DTE, Marriott) have also taken advantage of coal-based synfuel tax credits established in the 1970s, however many of the products qualifying for the subsidy are not true synthetic fuels.