94 BULLETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The disuse of the oil-fired steam engine may be encouraged and 

 permitted through the proper development of other energy resources, 

 such as coal and water power, as suggested in Parts 1 and 3 

 of this paper.^ The extent of the dependency of the country 

 upon oil-fired steam power is amazing in view of the slinmess of the 

 resource ; changes in this respect, in any event, must be forced within 

 a very few years. The lack of a constructive economic policy has 

 permitted this country to run into its present unsound condition in 

 respect to fuel oil; the sooner the enlarging use be turned into a 

 narrowing use, the better.^ 



The fuel-oil problem carries peculiar significance to the Southwest, 

 for most of the far western railroads and industries and much of 

 the Pacific coast shipping are utterly dependent upon fuel oil for 

 energy. Indeed, the fuel situation in the Western States and on the 

 Pacific is fundamentally different from that in other parts of the 

 United States. Because of the prolific oil fields of California, which 

 came into play at the beginning of an era of great industrial growth 

 and the distance of the Pacific region from important coal fields, 

 petroleum in that section is both coal and oil, so to speak. It can not 

 long play the double role; in fact, even now, the situation is badly 

 strained. Accordingly, the matter there is already an issue of grave 

 importance. The far West must either turn to coal, hauling much 

 of it long distances, or else develop cheap electric energy from the 

 streams of the Sierra and Coast ranges. It so happens, however, 

 that over one-third of the available water power of the country is 

 to be found in the States of California, Oregon, and Washington, 

 ready to release oil from its crudest use as soon as an adequate policy 

 of national water-power administration comes into play.^ 



1 The reduced utilization of fuel oil that would come from the wider employment of 

 the Diesel type of engine and the substitution of coal and hydroelectric power in appro- 

 priate degree would practically eliminate the low-use demand for petroleum products, 

 permitting the production capacity of the country to meet the legitimate demand for 

 some years to come. 



2 The California State Council of Defense (Repott of the committee on petroleum, 

 July 7, 1917, p. 158) estimates that fuel oil in San Francisco would have to advance 

 from $1.45 a barrel, the 1917 cost, to $2.66 a barrel — that is to say, double — before it 

 would become as costly as coal at $8 a ton. " It Is evident," this report goes on to say, 

 " that at present relative prices of fuel oil and coal in California, few consumers of fuel 

 oil will voluntarily give up its use and revert to coal ♦ * *." This report also 

 reviews the water-power situation (pp. 169-172) and states that the minimum potential 

 water-power resources of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Arizona is 

 12,619,000 horsepower, 45 per cent of the water-power resources of the entire country. 

 Of these potential resources only about one-tenth is now developed, the equivalent in 

 fuel oil of 19,000,000 barrels annually, while approximately one-third " can be developed 

 as required at an average investment cost which will permit of successful and profitable 

 operation under present conditions of the western power market." The undeveloped 

 but practicable water-power resources of this section, then, are capable of replacing 

 over 50,000,000 barrels of fuel oil annually, or approximately two-thirds of the present 

 consumption of fuel oil in this section. Hydroelectricity, the Diesel engine, and a slight 

 use of coal are capable. If properly directed, of solving the fuel problem of the far West. 



