ABSTRACT
Since the Arab oil embargo of 1973, a great deal of the attention of the policymaker and of the public has been devoted to energy-related questions, trends, and issues. The rising cost and uncertain supplies of oil and gas have caused policymakers, academicians, and some members of the private sector to concentrate on fuels derived from green plants—firewood, grain alcohol, and methane —as renewable sources of energy. The shift of the United States, and perhaps of other advanced industrial societies, to emphasizing renewable natural resources will force policymakers to focus on three particular issues. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) analysis assumes that critical national resources—land, research and development funds, and so on—will be allocated to the project or objective it outlines. The Global 2000 study team has combined all of the forecasts relevant to various natural resource problem areas and has extended them through the end of this century.
