This book presents an analytic history of American energy policy, examining policy failures and how the policy process itself leads to failure.

The world is transforming its energy system from one dominated by fossil fuel combustion to one with net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary anthropogenic greenhouse gas. This energy transition is critical to mitigating climate change, protecting human health, and revitalizing the U.S. economy. To help policymakers, businesses, communities, and the public better understand what a net-zero transition would mean for the United States, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine convened a committee of experts to investigate how the U.S. could best decarbonize its transportation, electricity, buildings, and industrial sectors. This report, Accelerating Decarbonization of the United States Energy System, identifies key technological and socio-economic goals that must be achieved to put the United States on the path to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The report presents a policy blueprint outlining critical near-term actions for the first decade (2021-2030) of this 30-year effort, including ways to support communities that will be most impacted by the transition.

Forty years of energy incompetence: villains, failures of leadership, and missed opportunities. 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 and argues that we must make better decisions for our energy future. Despite thousands of pages of energy legislation since the 1970s (passed by a Congress that tended to elevate narrow parochial interests over our national goals), 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.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of US policy from the perspective of an analyst and scholar from the region. This volume discusses the US energy diplomacy in the Caspian Sea region since 2001. It compares the foreign policy of the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, following the changing role of energy in the behavior of the US toward states in the energy hubs of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea. The chapters employ historical analysis, regional analysis, interviews, and case studies to trace the evolution of US interests in the area and posits likely trends for future policy. Topics discussed include: China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative the energy and foreign policies of the Caspian littoral states in comparison with those of China, India, the European Union, and Turkey the escalation of differences among key OPEC members during the Trump era the impact of the oil price war on the US shale industry the spread of COVID-19 and its impact on the oil market Russian and U.S. competition in the EU energy market the US-China trade war and the role of energy in the first phase of the US-China trade deal the energy policy of the incoming US President, Joe Biden Shedding light on the complex geopolitics of the US-Caspian Sea Energy diplomacy, this volume will be of interest to researchers of foreign policy, diplomacy, international relations, and energy policy as well as policymakers and analysts working in related areas.

This publication provides industry data on electric power, including generating capability, generation, fuel consumption, cost of fuels, and retail sales and revenue.