Future energy options, ethics and a case for conservation

Abstract

Up to 1990 the U.S. must rely upon four major sources for additional energy to meet the expected continued growth in energy use; (1) expanded coal and the associated synthetics fuels derived from it, (2) expanded production of Continental shelf and Alaskan oil and gas, (3) nuclear, and (4) imported petroleum. After 1990 solar and oil shale could play increasingly important roles as additional sources. These major energy options will be compared at a national level in their broad environmental, economic, social, and political implementation impacts. In view of the disadvantages which all of these choices entail, the necessity to continue energy use growth into the indefinite future will be explored with special emphasis on major effects of economic soundness, employment, food supply, national defense, and the emerging social unrest which characterizes the 1970s in the U.S.A. An inevitable conclusion from the preceeding survey urges that a major energy conservation program would be a wise and prudent course for the U.S.A. to follow, with the stipulation that its gradual implementation over something like a 10 year time period is necessary.