Author: David Lewis Feldman

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

The energy crisis of 1973-1974 was a pivotal event in twentieth-century American history. In the wake of the Vietnam War, it exposed the nation's economic vulnerability to foreign powers and precipitated an awareness of limits to the exploitation of natural resources. Further, it forced Americans and the American government in particular to think about the future of energy production and consumption in novel waysand made such thinking more imperative than ever. Twenty years later, questions about the energy crisis persist. What were the underlying causes of the crisis? What did we learn from it? How has it affected our current energy policies? Will another energy crisis occur in our future? In The Energy Crisis, David Lewis Feldman brings together a wide range of energy policy experts to address these questions and explore the appropriate role of governments and markets in ensuring a stable, economical, and sustainable energy supply. The authors locate the energy crisis in its historical context and find that, contrary to popular opinion, the Arab oil embargo was not responsible for the energy crisis. Rather, they contend, the crisis was caused by a series of short-sighted policy decisions meant to bring Americans cheaper energy and a cleaner environment. The contributors to The Energy Crisis conclude that the crisis was resolved by a combination of market forces and government intervention, and they offer perspectives on the need to sustain long-term interest in public/private partnerships in the face of short-term political and economic demands.