Resource constraints: The need for community management in economic development strategies

Abstract

As the world moves through a second decade of energy policy since the 1973–1974 Oil Embargo, it struggles to develop a coherent understanding of the role of energy in the economic process. Evidence is mounting that a changing economic landscape requires a fundamental re-examination of energy and natural resource policies. Among the new pillars of energy policy should be efforts to: (1) incorporate the prospect of resource constraints into development and employment strategies: (2) reintroduce the community as the focus of resource management decisions; and (3) acknowledge that increased expenditures for new resource development are not necessarily supportive of a community's need for gains in personal disposable income. Instead, resource efficiency, import substitution strategies, diversity in economic activities and better management techniques should be emphasized. This paper explores an example of locally-based energy management programs that can be used to offset growing resource constraints. Preliminary evidence from a number of community strategies in the State of Nebraska and elsewhere suggests that effective programs are those which have been anchored by the efficient use of indigenous resources and a diversity of resource management efforts.