ABSTRACT
U.S. energy research and development policy has been remarkably consistent. While the political economy of energy has changed dramatically in recent decades and government energy programs have experienced significant budgetary fluctuations, national R&D policy has exhibited a nearly uniform technological preference. This consistency has resulted from the convergence of specific values and institutional conditions that have provided the framework for energy R&D policy over the past four decades. Among these, three have been of special significance. First, energy R&D has been inspired by and has sought to emulate the government's programs for weapons development during and after World War II. Second, the objective of R&D policy has been energy abundance rather than energy efficiency. Third, the evaluation of energy options and R&D allocations has been confined by a self-sealing logic of technical determinism.
