Current petroleum prices are bringing about increased US dependence of foreign oil. New approaches for increasing fossil resource utilization are needed in this century to insulate the United States from potential economic shocks resulting from increased prices or reduced foreign oil production. The objective of this project was to search for innovations that could provide improvements perceived to be better than the evolutionary improvements resulting from current technology research. The search was for radically different (revolutionary) ideas rather than evolutionary ideas. Innovative ideas were generated in the following areas: direct and indirect liquefaction; oil shale; underground coal gasification; enhanced oil, heavy-oil, and tar-sand-bitumen recovery; Alaskan resources; and end-use concepts. Novel concepts were pursued by reconsidering oil ideas as well as by original thinking. Six steps were used to develop these novel concepts (problem characterization, idea generation, idea screening, concept development, concept evaluation, and research and development recommendation). Of the more than 200 ideas initially suggested, 144 are described in this report. Thirteen of these ideas were developed further. The ''biocatalytic depolymerization'' concept was considered to be the idea that most closely achieved the objectives of the project. 56 refs., 12 figs., 15 tabs.