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Energy and society
Author(s) -
Roberts P. C.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.4440040304
Subject(s) - energy conservation , environmental economics , legislation , factory (object oriented programming) , unit (ring theory) , energy consumption , economics , environmental pollution , fuel efficiency , natural resource economics , engineering , environmental science , computer science , environmental protection , political science , automotive engineering , mathematics education , mathematics , law , electrical engineering , programming language
The era of accelerating fuel us accompanied by fall in price is contrasted with the more recent advent of environmental awareness, and of conservation methods directed towards reducing energy consumption. the nature of the trade‐off between energy conserving equipment and fuel saving is compared with that between environmental damage costs and abatement costs. It is shown that society tends to operate at levels of conservation and pollution abatement which are well short of the optimum in each case. Householders require a very high return on conservation measures and utilities underestimate environmental damage. the parallel between factory reform legislation and modern standards setting is drawn. Simulation modelling is argued to have a role in showing the presence of market imperfections, discovering the magnitude of the effects deriving from the imperfections, and examining alternative instruments for overcoming the imperfections. In illustration of such simulation modelling, results of projections from the Energy Demand Projection model of the Systems Analysis Research Unit are given.