What Price Security? Three Views of the DOE Report. Spinning Wheels: A Review Article

• Published in: The Energy journal (Cambridge, Mass.) Mass.), 1988-04, Vol.9 (2), p.1-16
• Main Authors: Curlee, T. Randall, Wright, Arthur W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Energy; Energy policy; Energy security; Federal agencies; Presidents; Security; Tariffs
• ISSN: 0195-6574; 1944-9089
• DOI: 10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol9-No2-1

In March 1987, the U.S. Department of Energy published a report entitled Energy Security. This was a comprehensive presentation of the American government's view of both the world energy situation and the policies it advocates. Because of the importance of this report, The Energy Journal commissioned a series of studies to critically analyze key aspects of the report and extend the discussion. In this issue, we offer the first set of these studies. Our July issue will present three papers on the value of an oil import fee (or tariff). Notes, comments, and letters to the editor on this topic are strongly encouraged. Special Feature Spinning Wheels: A Review Article T. Randall Curlee and Arthur W. Wright Energy Security Revisited: A Report to the President of the United States (U.S. Department of Energy, March 1987) is a hefty book-240 pages of text, five appendices (several based on macroeconometric simulations), and fourteen pages of references (but no index). Parts of the book are quite good and constitute a major improvement over what passed for studies of energy security in the 1960s and 1970s. Unfortunately, most of the book's heft is wheel spinning: a lot of energy is expended, but we do not get very far. Greater understanding of energy security could have been accomplished in far fewer pages.