Energy Conservation and Economic Growth

In this volume, eight energy experts address the question of how much energy conservation can contribute to national energy supplies and how it will affect economic growth. The authors differ in their assessment, some taking a pessimistic and others an optimistic view of conservation’s ability to mitigate the damping effect of higher energy costs. They assign varying roles to conservation and energy supplies to meet social and economic goals, but agree on the need for more research. The areas of agreement include cost-effective conservation policies which rely heavily on market forces. They differ in their interpretations of historical data and the potential for substitution.