ABSTRACT
Responses to the energy crises of the 1970s have been pre-occupied with federal energy policy and politics. This had the effect of downgrading the interests of the states in energy policy and the roles they could play to influence their energy production and supply futures. After a decade of federal and state energy programs, there is need to pause, to take stock of current activities, to determine what has been learned from their design and implementation efforts, and to assess appropriate future directions. While aspects of energy supply and consumption may be reverting to the invisible status they enjoyed before 1973, energy remains too pervasive a force to take this path or to delegate to market forces alone. Energy expenditures, for example, remain extraordinary. Higher energy prices have led market forces to manage energy resources much more efficiently than in the past. However, innumerable market failures continue.
