National energy conservation

Abstract

A set of energy conservation actions that cut across all sectors of the economy were analyzed so that all actions under consideration be analyzed systematically and as a whole. The actions considered were as follows: (1) roll back the price of newly discovered oil, (2) freeze gasoline production for 3 years at 1972 levels, (3) mandate automobile mileage improvements, (4) require industry to improve energy efficiency, (5) require manufacture of household appliances with greater efficiency, (6) force conversion of many power plants from gas and oil to coal. The results showed that considerable gas and oil would be saved by forcing switches to coal. However, the large scale switch to coal was shown to require greatly increased outputs from many other industries that in turn require more energy. It was estimated that nearly 2.5 quads of additional coal were needed to produce these additional requirements. Also, the indirect requirements would create more jobs.