66 
BULLETIN 102, 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 the two preceding 
papers of this series . 1 The extent of the dependency of the country 
upon oil-fired steam power is amazing in view of the slimness 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 . 2 
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 . 3 * * * * 8 * * oil 
1 Parts 4 and 5, this bulletin. 
2 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. 
8 The California State Council of Defense (Report 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. Hydroelecitrlcity, the Diesel engine, and a slight 
use of coal are capable, if properly directed, of solving the fuel problem of the far West. 
