ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the stated rationale for energy analysis and its development and forms. Energetics, the most extreme version of energy analysis, is a resurrection of the energy theory of value. In an energetics analysis, the value of a manufactured good would consist of the energy content of the raw materials, a prorated share of the energy it took to make the machines and feed the workers, and the energy consumed in the manufacturing process. Energy accounting documents the flows of energy for various uses in physical units without specifying what society's tradeoffs should be for energy consumption. Energy consumption became less of an immediate concern in the United States daring the early 1980s because of the worldwide slowdown in economic activities, price-induced conservation, and the strong performance of the US dollar in foreign exchange markets which reduced the burden of imports.
