ABSTRACT
Finally, we still depend on Nordhaus’ ‘unproven technologies’ (p. 568) to address our long-term energy issues. Nordhaus laid out a case for synthetic liquid fuels in the near term and breeder reactors in the longer term. The US federal government was active in both areas in the years after this article. Breeders were abandoned under the Ford Administration due to proliferation concerns (Ford, 1976). Synfuels were abandoned after a decade and $4.5billion invested in pilot plants; very little useful fuel was produced although the program did generate commercial technology, some of which is now being applied in China (Anadon & Nemet, 2013). Aside from the technology specifics, Nordhaus’ modeling raises the question: to what extent should we bet on new unproven technology to help us achieve societal goals in the future?
