Evaluates trade-offs and uncertainties inherent in achieving sustainable energy, analyzes the major energy technologies, and provides a framework for assessing policy options.

A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the complex issues surrounding energy generation and use, this one-of-a-kind resource clarifies everything from the basic structure of the industry to the potential—and risks—of new technologies. Energy is a critical public concern in the 21st century, spurring demand for reliable, easy-to-understand information on subjects as varied as the drivers of prices, the potential for new technologies, the implications of a more diverse energy-supply portfolio, and the way government policies affect the energy marketplace. All of those issues and more are covered in this unique, two-volume compendium. Traditional energy sources such as oil, coal, and natural gas are explored in volume one and new and emerging energy sources are addressed in volume two. Each chapter provides a brief history of the energy source, describes how it functions, and examines market issues, government regulations, and environmental and community impacts. The work discusses energy security and energy independence, efficiency standards, and carbon policy as well as consumer-focused technologies such as energy storage options, smart appliances and homes, and electric cars. Readers will come away from this guide with an understanding of the energy industry and an appreciation of the ways government, industry, and society can manage both risks and benefits.

The 1970s were a decade of historic American energy crises—major interruptions in oil supplies from the Middle East, the country’s most dangerous nuclear accident, and chronic shortages of natural gas. In Energy Crises, Jay Hakes brings his expertise in energy and presidential history to bear on the questions of why these crises occurred, how different choices might have prevented or ameliorated them, and what they have meant for the half-century since—and likely the half-century ahead. Hakes deftly intertwines the domestic and international aspects of the long-misunderstood fuel shortages that still affect our lives today. This approach, drawing on previously unavailable and inaccessible records, affords an insider’s view of decision-making by three U.S. presidents, the influence of their sometimes-combative aides, and their often tortuous relations with the rulers of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Hakes skillfully dissects inept federal attempts to regulate oil prices and allocation, but also identifies the decade’s more positive legacies—from the nation’s first massive commitment to the development of alternative energy sources other than nuclear power, to the initial movement toward a less polluting, more efficient energy economy. The 1970s brought about a tectonic shift in the world of energy. Tracing these consequences to their origins in policy and practice, Hakes makes their lessons available at a critical moment—as the nation faces the challenge of climate change resulting from the burning of fossil fuels.

Future Energy will allow us to make reasonable, logical and correct decisions on our future energy as a result of two of the most serious problems that the civilized world has to face; the looming shortage of oil (which supplies most of our transport fuel) and the alarming rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 50 years (resulting from the burning of oil, gas and coal and the loss of forests) that threatens to change the world’s climate through global warming. Future Energy focuses on all the types of energy available to us, taking into account a future involving a reduction in oil and gas production and the rapidly increasing amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. It is unique in the genre of books of similar title in that each chapter has been written by a scientist or engineer who is an expert in his or her field. The book is divided into four sections: • Traditional Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Energy • Renewable Energy • Potentially Important New Types of Energy • New Aspects to Future Energy Usage Each chapter highlights the basic theory and implementation, scope, problems and costs associated with a particular type of energy. The traditional fuels are included because they will be with us for decades to come - but, we hope, in a cleaner form. The renewable energy types includes wind power, wave power, tidal energy, two forms of solar energy, bio-mass, hydroelectricity, geothermal and the hydrogen economy. Potentially important new types of energy include: pebble bed nuclear reactors, nuclear fusion, methane hydrates and recent developments in fuel cells and batteries. - Written by experts in the key future energy disciplines from around the globe - Details of all possible forms of energy that are and will be available globally in the next two decades - Puts each type of available energy into perspective with realistic, future options