Does the United States Need a Coordinated National Energy Policy?

Abstract

The question this work attempts to answer is, whether a single, Unified and Coordinated National Energy Policy would serve a better purpose or, having every state in the United States regulating its own regional energy policy, is the best economic and environmental way to regulate energy? The North Carolina Energy Policy Act created the Energy Policy Council, within Their Department of Commerce, to advise and make recommendations on Energy Policy to the State Governor and the North Carolina General Assembly and to serve as the state's central energy policy planning body. Here we see that the State of North Carolina regulating its own. Many states in the country are doing the same. This is not unusual as this work will show. Cases have been made for, and against a single, unified, nationally coordinated energy policy, as this work will show. What are the challenges we face in this quest for a nationally unified energy policy? What is the place for renewable energy sources? Does the United States give fossil fuel energy sources and industry preferential treatment, as we have seen here during the George W. Bush Administration, at the expense of the renewable energy sources? This work attempts to answer the above questions. This work can be of interest to Energy Lawyers, Oil & Gas Lawyers, Renewable energy industry management and personnel, Energy Law and Management students, Energy Law Professors, and Energy Law Students alike.