US Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure

If you are interested in energy policy and political economy, Peter Grossman has written a good book, US Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure. I was asked to blurb the book  and was happy to do so:

For four decades, politicians have promised a solution to the “energy crisis” that will bring Americans “energy independence”. Fusion, wind, solar, switch grass, or algae, the salvation technologies have changed but the promises remain the same and broken. In this important and entertaining book, Peter Grossman documents the history of energy policy failure. Most importantly, he explains why policy has failed. Crisis-mentality thinking has promoted quick fixes and single-shot ‘solutions’ that ignore market and technology realities. What we need is not a solution in the style of the Manhattan project but stable rules that support basic research while leaving plenty of scope for American entrepreneurship and innovation. Professor Grossman’s careful history and insightful analysis is the key guide to a more modest but a more successful energy policy.

Alex Tabarrok, Director, Center for Study of Public Choice, and Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics, George Mason University