A Framework for Analysis of Energy Choices - Energy Policy Analysis: A Conceptual Framework - page 11

of several energy sources renders the text seriously flawed. Some energy sources can be made
more reliable by requiring investments in additional technology that makes them more expensive
(e.g., load shedding equipment for electric transmission and distribution systems).
Some recent texts have focused on less environmentally disruptive renewable resources like
solar, hydro, and wind to the exclusion of more conventional and widely used energy sources like
coal, oil, and nuclear technologies (Simon 2007; Mallon 2006; Komor 2004; Geller 2003). These
texts usually begin from an assumed premise that the use of fossil fuels and nuclear technologies
is unsustainable and undesirable, emphasize a “crisis” approach, and advocate mitigating or re-
moving “entrenched advantages” held by conventional technologies to speed a shift to renewable
sources (Geller 2003, Ch. 1).
Consequently, these topics generally provide only an implicit decision-making framework
for choosing between energy policy options; they often provide only the most cursory analysis
of conventional fuels and technologies, if they provide any at all. For example, although Simon
(2007) discusses the technical, political, economic, and social feasibility of several renewable
technologies, he does not provide comparable treatment of conventional energy technologies or
an explicit conceptual framework for analyzing alternative national energy policy decisions.
Although such advocacy pieces have their uses in a classroom, they must be used with additional
texts, making course adoption expensive. And restricting available energy supply options to renew-
ables without providing a sound conceptual basis for doing so fails to recognize substantial existing
investments (“sunk costs”) in conventional energy sources that must be taken into consideration
if a desired shift to renewables might be accomplished without severe economic dislocation—a
concern most American politicians and government decision makers find of signal importance.
Unlike the foregoing texts, this topic presents an explicit, well-developed conceptual framework
for analysis of energy technologies in terms of their respective dollar costs, environmental costs,
and national security costs, thereby extending the literature of energy policy analysis. Components
of this conceptual framework are applied to various conventional and renewable energy fuel tech-
nologies and alternative national energy policy choices in the following chapters.
REFERENCES
Bamberger, Robert. 2006. Energy Policy: Conceptual Framework and Continuing Issues . Washington, DC:
U.S. Government Printing Office.
Banks, Ferdinand E. 2007. The Political Economy of World Energy . Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific.
Barton, Barry, Catherine Redgwell, Anita Ronne, and Donald N. Zillman. 2004. Energy Security: Managing
Risk in a Dynamic Legal and Regulatory Environment . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Butts, Kent Hughes. 1994. Environmental Security: A DOD Partnership for Peace . Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army
War College.
Cart, Julie. 2009. “The Writing on the Wall; Drought, Fire, Killer Heat and Suicides—Scientists Say Climate
Change Fears Have Become Reality in Australia.” Los Angeles Times , April 9.
Carter, Jimmy, Executive Office of the President. 1977. The National Energy Plan . Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office.
Cipiti, Ben. 2007. The Energy Construct: Achieving a Clean, Domestic, and Economical Energy Future .
North Charleston, SC: BookSurge.
Commoner, Barry. 1979. The Politics of Energy . New York: Knopf.
Copaken, Robert R. 2003. The Arab Oil Weapon of 1973-74 as a Double-edged Sword: Its Implications for
Future Energy Security . Durham, UK: University of Durham, Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic
Studies.
Daneke, Greg, and George Lagassa. 1980. Energy Policy and Public Administration . Lexington, MA: D.C.
Heath.
Davis, David H. 1993. Energy Politics , 4th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press.