United States Energy Policy

Abstract

Throughout the 197os, and especially since 1973, it has been patently apparent that a comprehensive turnaround in the pattern of US energy was essential to the future health of the world economy. An effective US energy policy has been eagerly and anxiously awaited by many governments for some time. After the false dawn of President Nixon’s Project Independence, probably overly ambitious, certainly undermined by the faltering course of the Administration during Watergate, the problems of import dependence and demand exceeding supply began to accumulate and with it an ominous strengthening of the OPEC nations’ ability to dictate terms not only to the United States but to most of the rest of the world.