This paper acknowledges the fact that there is no such thing as a free lunch - energy used is waste made. The paper reviews the environmental problems associated with two distinct classes of emerging energy technologies—solar and synfuels. Although the recent push towards synfuels has raised serious environmental concerns, it will be shown that developing the clean solar technologies also will demand sound environmental management practices. While changes in technology-use projections based on environmental constraints are not developed in this paper, it will be seen that some impacts could be quite significant; and still others could very well be showstoppers . Finally, the Federal regulatory scene is reviewed to determine what steps are being taken to prevent environmental damage without unnecessarily constraining, development of new energy technologies
