Paying Too Much for Energy? The True Costs of Our Energy Choices
Name
Greenstone-2012-Paying too much for.pdf
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334.82 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2713460cf198b29d7731d31f9795b416
Author(s)
Greenstone, Michael
Looney, Adam
Date Issued
April 2012
Journal
Daedalus
Publisher
MIT Press
Citation
Greenstone, Michael, and Adam Looney. “Paying Too Much for Energy? The True Costs of Our Energy Choices.” Daedalus 141.2 (2012): 10–30. Web. 4 May 2012.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Energy consumption is critical to economic growth and quality of life. America's energy system, however, is malfunctioning. The status quo is characterized by a tilted playing field, where energy choices are based on the visible costs that appear on utility bills and at gas pumps. This system masks the “external” costs arising from those energy choices, including shorter lives, higher health care expenses, a changing climate, and weakened national security. As a result, we pay unnecessarily high costs for energy. New “rules of the road” could level the energy playing field. Drawing from our work for The Hamilton Project, this paper offers four principles for reforming U.S. energy policies in order to increase Americans' well-being.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_00143
