ABSTRACT

Like life on the Galapagos Islands, state level energy institutions have been evolving rapidly and unpredictably since set adrift in the uncertain environment of events following the 1973 Arab oil embargo. This chapter analyzes the complex and unfolding evolution of state level energy institutions. It explores the ideas which led to certain institutional developments, what their policy implications were as well as their affect on state and national energy management, and where institutional evolution is headed in the future. Federal statutes mandating or supporting state level actions followed a somewhat similar evolution. The Public Conservation Corporation (PCC) would have all the advantages of a Quango plus the benefit of having most state level energy programs centrally located, yielding valuable administrative efficiencies and improvements in program effectiveness. The PCC would have all the advantages of a Quango plus the benefit of having most state level energy programs centrally located, yielding valuable administrative efficiencies and improvements in program effectiveness.