"Energy conservation means substituting ingenuity for energy-intensive
living; it is the sum of those measure that simultaneously save energy and are economically justifiable. Energy conservation is a revolution, a revolution that should be, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "...the extraordinary event necessary to enable all the ordinary events to continue."
Most people associate conservation with curtailment activities that have to
be
quickly employed to reduce demand. This is an accurate but limited definition.
Three major strategies are implied by the term "conservation":
attaining higher efficiency in
energy production and utilization, accommodating
behavior to maximize personal welfare in response to changing prices,
and shifting from scarce to more plentiful energy resources.
The following is just a sample of some fundamental conclusions reached in
Energy: The Conservation Revolution:
-
Influential energy demand studies have seriously overestimated future
-
U.S. energy requirements.
-
The basic factors of energy demand are changing, and these changes
-
all point to diminished growth in energy demand.
-
Economic growth is possible without growth in energy demand.
-
The price of energy can only go higher.
United States oil consumption hampers Third World development and is -
a threat to world peace.
-
Energy price controls harm mostly the poor, cause unnecessary
-
environmental damage, forfeit national security and ultimately lead to higher
-
energy costs.
-
Environmental protection policies should not be relaxed to foster
-
energy production.
-
Industrial energy conservation requires institutional as well as
-
technical innovation.
-
The 1980's will be difficult.
This interdisciplinary volume is easy to read and comprehensive; iit treats energy supplies and use in a consistent economic framework and does not endorse any one technology. Though the book focuses strongly on energy in the United States, it will nevertheless summon substantial international interest.
*****
When he co-authored this book with John H. Gibbons, William U. Chandler was the Director of the Energy Conservation Project at the Environmental Policy Institute. Prior to assuming this position he held research positions at the
University of Tennessee's Energy, Environment, and Resources Center and at
the Institute for Energy Analysis. He has also served as an energy consultant to the U.S. General Accounting Office, the Solar Energy Research Institute, and institutions in Nicaragua and Brazil. He has published extensively in the area of energy conservation.