Evaluating Alternative Energy Policies: An Example Comparing Transportation Energy Investments

Designing appropriate programs to deal with present and future energy problems faced by the United States has created a need for the evaluation and comparison of different policies. An important component of this is the generation of accurate information concerning the benefits and costs of alternative courses of action. Energy analysis is enormously complex, however, due to the pervasive influence of energy throughout the economy and the manifold factors that must be considered. Schmalensee has written that "discussions of energy policy, especially as regards new technologies, tend rapidly to become unwieldy because of the large number of serious complicating factors whose relevance is arguable" (1980, pp. 2-3). As a result of these complications, any information available to evaluate alternative energy policies Will almost of necessity be incomplete.