Summary

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Energy touches our lives in countless ways and its costs are felt when we fill up at the gas pump, pay our home heating bills, and keep businesses both large and small running. There are long-term costs as well: to the environment, as natural resources are depleted and pollution contributes to global climate change, and to national security and independence, as many of the world's current energy sources are increasingly concentrated in geopolitically unstable regions. The country's challenge is to develop an energy portfolio that addresses these concerns while still providing sufficient, affordable energy reserves for the nation.
The United States has enormous resources to put behind solutions to this energy challenge; the dilemma is to identify which solutions are the right ones. Before deciding which energy technologies to develop, and on what timeline, we need to understand them better.
America's Energy Future analyzes the potential of a wide range of technologies for generation, distribution, and conservation of energy. This book considers technologies to increase energy efficiency, coal-fired power generation, nuclear power, renewable energy, oil and natural gas, and alternative transportation fuels. It offers a detailed assessment of the associated impacts and projected costs of implementing each technology and categorizes them into three time frames for implementation.

Choice Review

This dense, glossy tome assesses the present and most realistic projections of US energy use, its cost, and possible energy mixes for the next 10, 25, and 40 years. Written by the country's elite in economics, science, and engineering, the volume is clear and analytically written with easy-to-understand graphs and charts. Although it packs no surprises, the book provides a comprehensive, serious analysis of US energy usage and issues by dissecting the technological and economic issues and hurdles the country faces as it moves to a more sustainable, carbon-neutral energy future. The work is logically organized. "Context and Challenges" provides introductory information, and "Key Findings" follows. The final section, "Key Results...," focuses on likely sources of US energy in the next 40 years (coal, oil, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, and solar). Although the book specifically avoids discussion of potential gains from conservation or regulation because of political uncertainties and their implementation, it does discuss probable impacts of technological and infrastructure improvements to building and product energy efficiency and gains to be found in improving electrical transmission and distribution. This work is a must for any serious energy scholar. The full text is available free online (). Summing Up: Highly recommended. Academic, professional, and public libraries, all levels. B. Ransom formerly, University of California, San Diego