ABSTRACT
Energy use and economic activity are inescapably connected. Energy utilized in productive activity is clearly an essential ingredient in economic growth; and, in turn, the proceeds of growth and rising income permit the consumption of energy-associated creature comforts and other services. Fuels and power are involved in mechanized industry or farming, in the transport of freight or passengers, and in the illumination and heating of commercial and residential structures; in short, energy is clearly indispensable to the welfare of a modern industrial society. Energy is related both to levels of economic development and to changes over time. A more difficult question remains as to whether that relationship is intractable or elastic. Specifically, could we accommodate our country’s present gross national product (GNP)—both in size and composition—with a substantially lower energy consumption? How much lower—and under what circumstances? What are the promises and pitfalls of energy conservation? And even more pertinent to the current debate, what range of growth rates for energy consumption might accompany an assumed growth rate for the GNP in the decades ahead? In this chapter, we want to provide the broad historical, conceptual, and comparative international setting within which to illuminate these issues. The discussion paves the way for the projections found in chapters 5 and 6.
