ABSTRACT
Energy is in fact an excellent case study of the central propositions about the limits to growth. Energy resources are finite in supply energy consumption is dissipative and leads to serious environmental problems. Three important questions about energy resources are important for assessing future long-run growth. These concern resource availability, price, and environmental effects. The brief diagnosis of the environmental disease suggests that the remedy is to put a realistic price tag on environmental goods. A group of environmental problems concern those which are quite risky from a global point of view. The effect of moving prematurely to high cost substitutes for what are very cheap resources will be a smaller but significant drag on economic. As the system moves toward a new long-run equilibrium, the drag on economic growth will be very small or even negative as new technologies come on line.
