Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values

Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values

by Frank N . Laird (Author)

Synopsis

Energy policies that promote new technologies and energy sources are policies for the future. They influence the shape of emergent technological systems, and also condition our social, political and economic lives. Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values demonstrates the difficulties of deliberating such properties by providing a historical case study that analyses US renewable energy policy from the end of World War II through the energy crisis of the 1970s. The book illuminates the ways beliefs and values come to dominate official problem frames and get entrenched in institutions. In doing so it also explains why advocates of renewable energy have often faced ideological opposition, and why policy makers fail to take them seriously.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 266
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 26 Mar 2001

ISBN 10: 0521782473
ISBN 13: 9780521782470
Book Overview: Analyses US renewable energy policy from World War II through 1970s energy crisis.

Media Reviews
'A useful overview of the hopes and fears of the UK nuclear industry ... this is a fascinating account of US federal policy on renewable energy between 1945 and 1980, together with a well-argued analysis of general energy and technology policy advocacy using the solar industry as an example.' Mark Hammonds, The Journal of Energy Literature
'In this fascinating book, Frank Laird has achieved a rare combination of rich historical detail with a compelling and timely thesis about the interaction of ideas, institutions, and new technology.' David H. Guston, Rutgers University
'Frank Laird has produced a thoughtful and perceptive analysis of both solar energy policy and of the larger domain of technology policy. This work, I am sure, will become a standard in the field.' Dr. Patrick W. Hamlett, North Carolina State University
Laird's book is highly readable and will be useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate seminars in STS or energy policy. Environmental History
Despite its title, this book is not a polemic about the merits of solar energy, but a scholarly well-researched political science study on how policies are made, especially longer-term technology policies with their inherent uncertainties...the book is very well edited, meticulously documented, and makes a very readable and useful contribution to the literature on the process of technology policy-making. Science and Public Policy
In his very readable book Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values Frank Laird provides important insights into how the energy debate has evolved over the years and some important contexts for thinking about the future...this book should be required reading in courses on energy or environmental policy, and indeed it should be read by all those engaged in the practice of energy policy itself. Policy Sciences
Author Bio
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