Energy resources : availability, management, and environmental impacts

Over the past several decades, there has arisen among informed leaders of industry, government and the environmental movement, an acute awareness of energy as a problem of impending critical magnitude on the national and international scene. The energy crisis or problem, as it has been called, was created by historical increases in demand for energy and the continuing lack of a viable management policy. This situation has resulted in two issues that are fast becoming pervasive concerns. One is the adequate, reliable supply of all forms of energy in developed countries, and the other is the growing public concern with the environmental and social consequences of producing and distributing usable energy.