Taken from a report for the Electric Power Research Institute, Joy Dunkerley’s study aims to clarify the relationship between energy consumption and economic output in industrialised countries. Originally published in 1980 and using data from 1972, this study uses cross-country comparisons of energy use to stress the importance of new supply options and measures of controlling energy use without affecting living standards whilst also discussing the impact of energy prices and economic growth in the countries studied. This title will be of interest to students of environmental studies.

The fIrst oil crisis of 1973-74 and the questions it raised in the economic and social fIelds drew attention to energy issues. Industrial societies, accustomed for two decades or more to energy sufficiently easy to produce and cheap to consume that it was thought to be inexhaustible, began to question their energy future. The studies undertaken at that time, and since, on a national, regional, or world level were over-optimistic. The problem seemed simple enough to solve. On the one hand, a certain number of resources: coal, the abundance of which was discovered, or rather rediscovered oil, source of all the problems ... In fact, the problems seemed to come, if not from oil itself (an easy explanation), then from those who produced it without really owning it, and from those who owned it without really control ling it natural gas, second only to oil and less compromised uranium, all of whose promises had not been kept, but whose resources were not in question solar energy, multiform and really inexhaustible thermonuclear fusion, and geothermal energy, etc. On the other hand, energy consumption, though excessive perhaps, was symbolic of progress, development, and increased well being. The originality of the energy policies set up since 1974 lies in the fact they no longer aimed to produce (or import) more, but to consume less. They sought, and still seek, what might be emphatically called the control of energy consump tion, or rather the control of energy demand.

Monographic comparison of efficiency and wastefulness in power consumption in developed countries, partic. The USA - compares energy use in the household, commerce, agricultural sector, industrial sector and transport, and applies input output analysis and final demand analysis to total consumption expenditure in relation to prices. Diagrams, references and statistical tables.

Energy is at the top of the list of environmental problems facing industrial society, and is arguably the one that has been handled least successfully, in part because politicians and the public do not understand the physical technologies, while the engineers and industrialists do not understand the societal forces in which they operate. In this book, Allan Mazur, an engineer and a sociologist, explains energy technologies for nontechnical readers and analyses the sociology of energy. The book gives an overview of energy policy in industrialised countries including analysis of climate change, the development of electricity, forms of renewable energy and public perception of the issues. Energy is a key component to environment policy and to the workings of industrial society. This novel approach to energy technology and policy makes the book an invaluable inter-disciplinary resource for students across a range of subjects, from environmental and engineering policy, to energy technology, public administration, and environmental sociology and economics.