The escalating imbalance between energy supply and demand may be the most difficult and pervasive problem facing the world today. And most responsible forecasts anticipate a major aggravation of the prob lem in the future. In the U.S., the root cause of the problem has been stated, almost universally, as the insatiable demand of the American public for energy as reflected in the exponential growth of its demand. The solution, as proffered by some, is the adoption of a no-growth or limited-growth philosophy and, by others, as the conservation of end-use consumption, either voluntarily or by government edict. These te nets will be examined here together with the role of electric power, a form of energy that has been growing at nearly double the rate of total "raw" energy de mand (7.2 vs. 4.4 percent annually).Although the sustained high rate of growth in ener gy demand in the past has had a direct and major impact on the emerging energy crisis, it is doubtful that it is the root cause. The causes are manifold. They relate to governmental tax, pricing, and regula tory policies; inadequate planning on the part of the energy industries themselves; political considerations; and, more recently, attempts to impose instant solu tions to long-standing environmental problems.The proposition that the problem is simply one of excessive demand created by a "cheap energy" policy is also fallacious. Energy demand has risen steeply in many European nations and in Japan even though these nations have depended heavily on energy im ports and have not had cheap energy policies.Energy is such an intrinsic part of modern life that price variations, even over a wide range, may not have a pronounced near-term effect on demand. Con sumer decisions regarding the purchase and utiliza tion of energy-consuming devices are usually based on the need or desire for such devices and on their price, not on the cost of the energy to operate them.Energy, in terms of all fuels and electricity, ac counts for only some 3 percent of the expenditures constituting the Consumer Price Index.^ Also, the low content of value added by energy to the total cost of a product in industry hardly constitutes-except for a very few industries-a major factor in decision-mak ing. While energy costs are rising rapidly, so are the costs of raw materials and labor. The availability of energy makes possible a highly industrialized society; it does not, through pricing, create one.In a democratic society, the resolution of major public issues can be accomplished only after enlight ened discussion aimed at reaching a solution which the majority of its citizens will support. A solution to the energy crisis cannot be advanced either by argu ing the merits of a no-growth society or by projecting unlimited exponential growth. In fact, there is no way to enforce a no-growth or limited-growth policy on the bulk of the American public at this point in our na tion's history without creating domestic havoc and further jeopardizing our security in an unstable world. The causative factor...