- Significance:
- We seem to be at the conflux of multiple energy crises. Our dependence on fossil fuels continues to grow; fossil fuel supplies are finite; and known oil reserves are concentrated in politically volatile regions. As a consequence, oil prices are soaring. Moreover, the negative effects of burning fossil fuels seem increasingly apparent. In order to best navigate this tangle of challenges, we need energy policies that are forward thinking, environmentally responsible, economically feasible, and ultimately sustainable. Without such policies, our economic and national security is in jeopardy.
- Interesting, Challenging, Provocative:
- For all of the reasons stated above, investigating, analyzing and debating our national energy policies poses an interesting area for us to consider. Further, the emergence of alternative energy technologies adds to the interest value of this area of inquiry. This subject is challenging because it demands the investigation, evaluation, and consideration of complex technological, natural, environmental, sociological, economic, and political issues. There are no simple answers to meeting our energy demands in a way that satisfies all of our needs simultaneously. Debating an appropriate course of action would make for some very provocative analysis and argumentation.
- Educational:
- The closest many of us ever get to exploring energy policies is web surfing the best gas prices, adjusting our thermostats, or throwing another log into the wood burner. Yet, our way of life is intimately connected to our nation’s energy policies. We feel the effects of these policies on a personal level in a very real way every day. This topic area would promote a thoroughgoing investigation of this area of policy-making that profoundly affects us all collectively as well as individually. As a consequence of this inquiry, we might better understand the interplay between our own energy consumption patterns and the policies that shape them.
- Sample Sources:
- Doern, G. Bruce, and Monica Gettinger (2003). Power switch: energy regulatory governance in the twenty-first century.
- Hostetter, Martha. Editor (2002). Energy Policy.
- Morgenstern, Richard D., and Paul R. Portney, Editors (2004). New approaches on energy and the environment: policy advice for the president.
- Roberts, Paul (2004). End of oil: on the edge of a perilous new world.
- US Congress, House Committee on Science (2002). National energy policy: report of the National Energy Policy Development Group: administration view.
