ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how France has addressed the energy trilemma over time. It begins with a review of the situation before the oil shocks, when France was becoming steadily more dependent on imports of oil. The chapter describes how France responded to the oil shocks, devoting particular attention to the rapid buildup of the country's nuclear power capacity. It presents the review of the energy policy that took place in the first years of the new millennium, which culminated in a renewal of France's commitment to nuclear power. The primary purpose of the nuclear program was to reduce France's reliance on what had come to be unreliable and expensive energy imports, especially petroleum. During much of the post-war era, France faced not an energy trilemma but a dilemma: balancing the security of energy supplies against their costs. Since the 1970s, France has had a relatively easy time of balancing the competing goals of energy security, energy affordability, and environmental stability.
