ABSTRACT
It is amazing how fast a war in the Middle East will focus public attention on energy security. Because of Iraq, interest has been revived in an issue that has been dormant in this country for ten years. After several months of timid responses to the question, "what is our energy security policy?," the Bush administration in February 1991 issued the long-awaited National Energy Strategy (NES), giving the government's most recent answer to this question. The program recommends a number of efforts to encourage additional domestic energy production, but no serious proposals to move the country away from imported oil in particular or away from energy in general. Because of these omissions, the NES has provoked considerable controversy. 1
