The synthetic fuel industry is perhaps the only industry ever to be subjected to a nationwide review of potential environmental consequences before the first commercial scale plant is built. The first wave of synfuel plants will continue to be scrutinized by a suspicious public that has witnessed a decade of increasing environmental regulation, Three Mile Island, and Love Canal. The EPA will not be issuing pollutant discharge limits for synfuel facilities in the near future. Instead, the first plants will be regulated on a case-by-case basis using the environmental permit system. In general, synfuel plants should be capable of complying with applicable environmental standards by adapting commercial pollution control technology. There should be no acute environmental impacts from a properly suited, designed, and controlled plant. However, because no commercial-scale plants exist for most synfuel technologies, many environmental questions remain unanswered. The major questions deal with: (1) the long-term effects on workers and the environment of low-level exposure to synfuel chemicals; (2) the characteristics of actual gaseous, liquid, and solid waste from large-scale facilities; and (3) the adaptability effectiveness, and reliability of commercially available pollution control technology. Specific issues relate to the need for quantitative health risk assessments, the implications of the Toxic Substances Control Act, the practicality of the mandate for zero wastewater discharge, the control of fugitive hydrocarbon emissions, the effects of solid waste disposal, and the cumulative impacts of regional energy development (especially socioeconomics). Environmental monitoring will play a large role in understanding the technologies, characterizing pollutants and the effectiveness of control technology, developing realistic environmental standards, and determining the effects of synfuel chemicals on workers and the environment.