ABSTRACT
The thesis that available energy limits and governs the structure of human societies is not new. In 1886 Boltzmann pointed out that life is primarily a struggle for available energy. Soddy (1) stated in 1933: "If we have available energy, we may maintain life and produce every material requisite necessary. That is why the flow of energy should be the primary concern of economics" (p. 56). The flow of energy has not been the primary concern of mainstream economists, although the importance of energy to the functioning of economic systems has by now been recognized by almost everyone. Who can deny the dramatic effects of the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the 1979 Iranian revolution? The debate now focuses on the nature and details of the energy connection and the conclusions are critically important to several aspects of national policy. This paper extends earlier input-output based analysis of energy-economy linkages by incorporating the energy costs of labor and government services and solar energy inputs.
