Through the Straits

Abstract

The energy future which we envision is not some specific scenario, but rather a future still dimly seen that unfolds by events yet to occur and by application of certain principles. These principles include:

• use of energy as a means, not an end;

• application of technical ingenuity and institutional innovation;

• making investment decisions with clear signals of total long-run, marginal costs, and cost trends;

• correcting distorted or inadequate market signals with policy instruments;

• internalizing to the extent possible the national security, human health, and environmental costs of using energy;

• investment in energy supply and utilization research and development by both the public and private sectors;

• providing consumer equity not with energy price controls, but with other means;

• increasing cognizance of world conditions and needs, with special regard for international security and charity for the special needs of poor nations.

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot yet be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appears.

Antonio Gramsci Prison Notebooks, as cited in Daniel Martin, by John Fowles (1977)