ABSTRACT
The role of the federal government, in the eyes of some local energy officials, was to make change easier, to help local governments overcome their reluctance to accepting responsibility for energy. The broader point is this: a central government truly interested in getting localities and states to accept more than their traditional responsibilities would put some effort into ensuring that such actually took place. With the inauguration of Ronald Feagan, Americana witnessed something unique in American politics—the ascension of a president who thought his primary responsibility was to foment a revolution. Like the energy official in the District of Columbia, they think they can guide the citizen toward some specific goal. The director of the District of Columbia energy office, for instance, argued that the need for a city energy office "to guide the city to energy-efficiency is all the greater" that the federal government was "shifting" that responsibility to the states.
