Energy Policy: Mostly Sound and Fury

Yale economist William Nordhaus, writing in the New York Times in 1980, had this to say about fixing the real problem: “A recent study by the Department of Energy, called Energy Programs/Energy Markets, has estimated … what the impact of all current programs would be in 1990. … The central and surprising conclusion of the Energy Department study is that the energy programs add up to about zero. … By comparison, the rising relative prices of energy will probably lower energy use 20 to 30 percent by 1990.”