Uncertain Power: The Struggle for a National Energy Policy discusses several issues pertaining to the energy situation in the U.S., such as the public, the government, and the risks. The opening chapter discusses a delicate balance among the public, experts, and government. Chapter 2 tackles the failure of consensus on energy, and Chapter 3 deals with energy policy and democratic theory. The fourth chapter reviews the neglect of social risk assessment; the fifth chapter discusses valuing of human life. Chapter 6 tackles the media coverage of complex technological issues, and Chapter 7 covers the governance of nuclear power. The eighth chapter covers the national energy policy from state and local perspectives, while the ninth chapter reviews selling saved energy, considered as a new role for the utilities. Chapter 10 discusses energy and security, and Chapter 11 tackles history as a guide to the future. The last chapter covers the political geology of the energy problems. Readers who concern themselves regarding several factors that affect energy source, supply, and distribution along with its socio-economic implication will find this book a great source of insight regarding the issue.

This book explores how different governments have leveraged their capacity to advance a revival of nuclear power. Presenting in-depth case studies of France, Finland, Britain and the United States, Baker and Stoker argue that governments may struggle to promote new investment in nuclear power.

With the dramatic changes OPEC precipitated in the structure of world energy markets during the 1970s, energy became a central concern to policymakers throughout the industrialized West. This book ex-amines the responses of public officials in three leading European nations—the Federal Republic of Germany, France, and the Netherlands—to the energy crisis. As the study shows, the proposed energy programs in the three countries shared remarkable similarities; yet the policy outcomes were very different. To explain why, Michael T. Hatch goes beyond the specific content of government energy policy to include an analysis of the policymaking process itself. At the heart of the study is an exploration of the various dimensions of nuclear policy in West Germany. The political consensus on nuclear power that prevailed in the initial years following the energy crisis disintegrated as antinuclear "citizens' initiatives," the courts, and trade unions, as well as the traditional political parties, entered the policymaking process. Subsequent government efforts to resolve the political stalemate over nuclear power foundered in a morass of domestic electoral politics and an international debate over nuclear proliferation. Extending the analysis to comparisons with French and Dutch nuclear strategies, Hatch argues that the critical factor in determining nuclear policy was the manner in which the political system structured the nuclear debate. In contrast to West Germany, where the electoral and parliamentary systems enhanced the influence of the antinuclear "Greens," the electoral system and constellation of political parties in France served to dissipate the influence of the antinuclear forces. Thus in France the nuclear program en-countered few impediments. In the Netherlands, as in West Germany, government policy was paralyzed in the face of antinuclear sentiment across a broad spectrum of Dutch society. Hatch has provided here not only a useful examination of the development of energy policy in western Europe but also a case study of the close interplay between policy and politics.

This book grew out of projects funded by the Kentucky Human ities Council in 1974 and. 1975 and by the Environmental Protec tion Agency in 1976 and 1977. As a result of the generosity of these two agencies, I was able to study the logical, methodological, and ethical assumptions inherent in the decision to utilize nuclear fission for generating electricity. Since both grants gave me the opportunity to survey public policy-making, I discovered that there were critical lacunae in allegedly comprehensive analyses of various energy technologies. Ever since this discovery, one of my goals has been to fill one of these gaps by writing a well-docu mented study of some neglected social and ethical questions regarding nuclear power. Although many assessments of atomic energy written by en vironmentalists are highly persuasive, they often also are overly emotive and question-begging. Sometimes they employ what seem to be correct ethical conclusions, but they do so largely in an in tuitive, rather than a closely-reasoned, manner. On the other hand, books and reports written by nuclear proponents, often Under government contract, almost always ignore the social and ethical aspects of energy decision-making; they focus instead only on a purely scientific assessment of fission generation of electricity. What the energy debate needs, I believe, are more studies which aim at ethical analysis and which avoid unsubstantiated assertions. I hope that these essays are steps in that direction.

In a world confronting global climate change, political turmoil among oil exporting nations, nuclear weapons proliferation, nuclear plant safety and waste disposal issues, the United States must assume a leadership role in moving to a zero-CO2-emissions energy economy. At the same time America needs to take the lead in reducing the world's reliance on nuclear power. This breakthrough joint study by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and the Nuclear Policy Research Institute shows how our energy needs can be met by alternative sources, as wind, solar, hydrogen, biomass, microalgae, geothermal and wave power are all part of the solution. Must reading for everyone concerned with energy politics and the planet's future, Carbon-Free is already making headlines.