Energy and the Environment: The New Case for Conservation

This paper explores how emerging environmental issues will affect the nature of energy policy and the research agenda of energy analysts in the near future. The energy policies of the 1970s are described as inadequate in the current context because of the failure of markets to regulate environmental resource use and the imperfect link between energy consumption and environmental degradation. Abatement, structural change, substitution, and conservation are discussed as actions for the mitigation of environmental damages. Greater integration of energy and environmental policy and a shift from standards to market-based policy instruments are stressed as strategies for addressing long-term environmental problems.