Summary
This book analyzes the energy security of the United States – its ability to obtain reliable, affordable, and sufficient supplies of energy, while meeting the goals of achieving environmental sustainability and enhancing energy independence. The economic and national security of the United States is largely dependent upon fossil fuels, especially oil. Without significant changes to current practices and patterns of energy production and use, the domestic and global impacts – security, economic, and environmental – are expected to become worse over the coming decades. Growing US and global energy demands need to be met and the anticipated impacts of global warming must be avoided – all at an affordable price.
Using original data and interviews, Bernell and Simon examine the current and prospective landscape of American energy policy, from the local and state level to the federal level (including both domestic and foreign policy), from the actions taken in the Middle East to ensure affordable, steady supplies of oil, to the very local regulations and practices that shape how the US produces and uses electricity. It looks at the variety of energy related challenges facing the United States and argues that US policies and practices have produced greater insecurity in terms of fostering rising (and potentially unmet) energy needs, national security threats, economic vulnerability, and environmental dangers. The book further argues that these potential dangers – such as terrorism, reliance on politically unstable countries for oil supplies, the increasing militarization of energy markets, global warming, diminished health and safety, and economic vulnerability – can be mitigated with a variety of policy changes, at all levels of government, that can foster alternatives and diminish the harmful consequences of current energy policies and practices.