The dismantling of the Synthetic Fuels Corporation and the shelving of scores of synfuel plant proposals have triggered a need for a searching inquiry into the reasons why the initial promise of synfuels has not been realized. In this volume a distinguished group of political scientists, policy analysts, and energy planners apply the critical tools of economic, scientific, and political analysis in an attempt to illuminate why the dream of synthetic fuels development has ended, at least temporarily. The essays collected here grapple with a variety of problems surrounding the rise and demise of synthetic fuels development in the 1970s.