Conclusion - Energy Policy Analysis: A Conceptual Framework - page 229

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Conclusion
National energy policy choices in the United States are constrained by three primary costs of
continued high energy use: higher energy prices, greater environmental degradation, and increased
security risk. A conceptual framework is presented here for analysis of various conventional and
renewable energy fuel technologies in terms of their respective dollar costs, environmental costs,
and national security costs to the nation. The focus here is on analysis of technological options
for formulating a coherent national energy policy for the United States.
A systematic examination of the various energy fuel technologies in terms of their environ-
mental, dollar, and national security costs, assigning simple numerical weights to them (high =
3, moderate = 2, low = 1) produces a rough ranking from lowest overall costs to highest costs
as follows:
1. Conservation and efficiency
1. Geothermal heat pump
1. Solar energy
2. Beneficial biomass
3. Hydroelectric energy
4. Hydrogen
4. Harmful biomass
5. Wind
5. Ocean
6. Natural gas
6. Geothermal power plants
7. Electricity
8. Coal
8. Petroleum
9. Nuclear energy
On the basis of this analysis, technologies at the top of the list are the most desirable for the
United States to emphasize in national energy policy in the immediate future. Several tie scores
are apparent in this ranking, which must be considered imprecise, but sufficient for ordinal data.
What is significant about it is the position of each energy fuel technology in the ranking relative
to the others, not the interval between them.
Moreover, because electricity is not really an energy fuel technology, but merely a transpor-
tation technology, the environmental, dollar, and national security costs of utilizing the several
fuels requiring bulk electric power transmission must be adjusted upward to reflect the additional
costs of high-voltage transmission to energy end users. Of paramount concern in making these
calculations is the vulnerability to sabotage and higher national security costs in an increasingly
unstable political world. Not all energy fuel technologies require a transmission grid, and a few
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