U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure

Abstract

U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure is an analytic history of American energy policy. For the past forty years, the U.S. government has tried to develop comprehensive policies on energy, yet these efforts have failed repeatedly. These failures have not resulted from a lack of will or funds but rather from an inability to differentiate between what could be undertaken and what could actually be accomplished. This book explains how and why various policy efforts have come about, shows why politicians have been eager to back them, and analyzes why they have inevitably failed. Over the past four decades, U.S. energy policy makers have pursued not just policies that have failed but also a policy process that leads to failure.

Politics in the U.S. energy transition: Case studies of solar, wind, biofuels and electric vehicles policy

“…Although these theories focus on slightly different actors, time scales, and causal mechanisms (Nowlin 2011), all emphasize windows of opportunity for policy change, especially following acute "focusing events" such as oil and nuclear crises (Carlisle et al 2016;Grossman 2013;Nohrstedt & Weible 2010;Nohrstedt 2008;Smith 5 2002). Our paper builds on this literature by demonstrating how oil crises drove omnibus energy legislation, opening policy windows for wind, solar, biofuels, and EVs.…”

“…Energy was put on the federal agenda after Iraq invaded Kuwait, causing oil prices to rise precipitously in mid-1990 (Carlisle et al 2016;Grossman 2013). …”

The financial and environmental costs and benefits for Norwegian electric car subsidies: are they good public policy?

“…When green technology investment and consumption are thought to be inadequate for meeting the future energy and/or environmental needs of society, it is often deemed a market failure that creates incentives for governments to intervene (Greene, German and Deluchi 2009;Grossman, 2009). Environmentalists and government policy makers typically promote green subsidies and supports to correct two underlying causes of green technology unattractiveness that can lead to market failures.…”

“…Public policy makers often promote green subsidies as a means for developing a market of sufficient size to give manufacturers the economies of scale necessary to compete with 'brown' alternatives (Grossman, 2009;Holtsmark, 2012;Myhrvold, 2011). In the context of Norway's small car market, where even the best selling ICV model has less than 10,000 sales annually, such demand-side BEV subsidies are unlikely to have much effect on BEV economies of scale globally when profitability typically requires several hundred thousand unit sales per year.…”

Lifting the US Crude Oil Export Ban: A Numerical Partial-Equilibrium Analysis

“…In 2013, nevertheless, the US still imported about 50% of their refinery input (Kilian, 2015). Because demand for oil products exceeds domestic production in spite of the shale oil revolution, consumers and industry in the US remain vulnerable and exposed to global price shocks (Brown and Huntington, 2015;Grossman, 2013). Also, the profitability of the United States shale oil expansion depends on global crude prices (API, 2014;Aguilera, 2014;Aguilera et al, 2009).…”