ABSTRACT
The 1960s and 1970s witnessed increased concern in the United States about resource use and environmental quality. In hopes of constraining private-sector activities, citizens turned first to government, and the subsequent legislative response at both the national and state levels was substantial. Water and air pollution legislation, which was passed in several waves, placed increasingly stringent regulations on private sources of effluent. Energy conservation schemes and energy utility tariff reforms sought a reduction in aggregate energy use, as well as the substitution of fuels with larger stocks for those in short supply and a lower level of waste and pollution emissions associated with any energy use. Finally, at the state level, regulatory commissions sought to bring energy use and investment patterns into line with the new conservation and environmental concerns.
