| Synopsis: |
Despite recent oil price reductions, analysts see potential for another energy crisis by the early 1990s, unless corrective action is taken soon. The United States' energy dependence has increased: we now rely on imports for as much as 70 percent of our needs. Meanwhile, capital markets and institutions worldwide have still not fully adjusted to the consequences of scarce and expensive energy. The experience of the early 1970s taught us that an energy crisis requires vigorous planning and significant policy changes. This volume in the Energy Policy Studies series examines the planning challenge that the possibility of a new energy crisis brings and explores what experience has taught us about our ability to plan for such changes. The articles included cut across various levels of analysis, from local and regional to national and international, and contributors employ a number of analytical and disciplinary perspectives. Above all, they present energy planning as deeply interconnected with vitually all other kinds of planning, from economic and environmental to urban and transportation. The volume focuses on four principal issues: planning for energy conservation, planning for the utility sector and its implications; environmental and land-use factors in energy use and development, and the energy implications of urban and regional planning. Among the topics addressed are: world energy demand, electric power planning in the Third World, political and ethical issues in nuclear waste disposal, coal development on public land, impact of coal policies in Great Britain, the influence of changing oil prices on urban structure, community energy planning, and general requirements for energy planning. Planning for Changing Energy Conditions is another important volume in the Energy Policy Studies series. |