Public Purpose or Private Benefit?: The Politics of Energy Conservation (Issues in Environmental Politics)

Providing an analysis of the politics of energy conservation over three decades, this text examines the change of emphasis from energy conservation in the 1970s. The 1980s showed a pre-occupation with energy efficiency and its private benefits to consumers and the changing dynamics of energy markets in the 1990s came due to liberalization and climate change concerns. Six countries are examined in the text, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Australia and Japan. The role of governments is analyzed via incentives, regulation and energy policy communities in which key players include electricity and gas utilities, whose main interest is selling more energy.