Title: Creating a renewable energy future for the United States

Authors: Keith Kozloff, Roger C. Dower

Addresses: World Resources Institute (WRI), 1709 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. 20006, USA. ' World Resources Institute (WRI), 1709 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. 20006, USA

Abstract: For twenty years, US national energy policy has to one extent or another encouraged the development and adoption of renewable energy technologies to enhance environmental quality and energy security. After the oil shocks of the 1970s, the desire to increase energy security spurred state and federal government support for renewables, but this support began waning by the early 1980s. Although renewables are making a comeback, twenty years of policy zig-zagging have left their mark. Renewables currently meet only 8 percent of US energy needs; under current policy and market trends, this share is not expected to reach 9 percent by 2010 (EIA 1993). In this article, the authors assess current public policy for renewables and recommend state and federal policies for maximising the environmental and economic benefits that the United States can obtain from renewable energy sources. Isolating the main barriers to the greater use and development of renewables provides insights about where the United States has gone wrong (or right) in the past and how future policies may be more effectively targeted. The presumption here is that renewables are of practical, not just intrinsic, interest, and the article emphasises those policy options that allow renewables to fairly and fully compete in the market.

Keywords: energy policy; renewable energy; United States; USA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGEI.1995.063489

International Journal of Global Energy Issues, 1995 Vol.7 No.5/6, pp.246-260

Published online: 15 Jul 2014 *

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