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The Unmaking of America's Environment, Security, and Independence
MIT Press
May 2011
On Sale: April 29, 2011
384 pages
ISBN: 0262015676
EAN: 9780262015677
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Americans take for granted that when we flip a switch the
light will go on, when we turn up the thermostat the room
will get warm, and when we pull up to the pump gas will be
plentiful and relatively cheap. In The End of Energy,
Michael Graetz shows us that we have been living an energy
delusion for forty years. Until the 1970s, we produced
domestically all the oil we needed to run our power plants,
heat our homes, and fuel our cars. Since then, we have had
to import most of the oil we use, much of it from the Middle
East. And we rely on an even dirtier fuel—coal—to produce
half of our electricity. Graetz describes more than forty
years of energy policy incompetence—from the Nixon
administration’s fumbled response to the OPEC oil embargo
through the failure to develop alternative energy sources to
the current political standoff over “cap and trade”—and
argues that we must make better decisions for our energy future. Rather than pushing policies that, over time, would produce
the changes we need, presidents have swung for the fences,
wasting billions seeking a technological “silver bullet” to
solve all our problems. Congress has continually elevated
narrow parochial interests over our national goals,
directing huge subsidies and tax breaks to favored
constituents and contributors. And, despite thousands of
pages of energy legislation since the 1970s, Americans have
never been asked to pay a price that reflects the real cost
of the energy they consume. Until Americans face the facts
about price, our energy incompetence will continue—and along
with it the unraveling of our environment, security, and
independence.
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