ABSTRACT
The temptation is to choose the latter that cities have always had problems, that congestion, pollution, and a certain amount of tension are as inevitable in cities as waves in an ocean. Appealing though such an argument might be to a federal policymaker interested in salvaging cities, it is not a particularly convincing reason for a local official to get involved in energy planning. Nevertheless, there remain reasons for city officials to be concerned about energy planning, reasons of a different nature than that advanced by Henry S. Reuss, reasons that speak not so much to national well-being but to local needs. City governments ought to involve themselves in energy planning because a substantial part of the city budget is consumed by energy and the availability, cost, type and amount of energy used by a city can have a tremendous impact on its overall economic welfare.
