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Belief-based Energy Technology Development in the United States - A Comparative Study of Nuclear Power and Synthetic Fuel Policies (Hardcover, New)
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Belief-based Energy Technology Development in the United States - A Comparative Study of Nuclear Power and Synthetic Fuel Policies (Hardcover, New)
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This book is a comparative study of two energy policies that
illustrates how and why technical fixes in energy policy failed in
the United States. In the post-WWII era, the U.S. government
forcefully and consistently endorsed the development of civilian
nuclear power. It adopted policies to establish the competitiveness
of civilian nuclear power far beyond what would have occurred under
free-market conditions. Even though synthetic fuel was
characterized by a similar level of economic potential and
technical feasibility, the policy approach toward synthetic fuel
was sporadic and indeterminate. The contrast between the
unfaltering faith in nuclear power and the indeterminate attitude
toward synthetic fuel raises many important questions. The answers
to these questions reveal provocative yet compelling insights into
the policy-making process. The author argues that these diverging
paths of development can be explained by exploring the dominant
government ideology of the time or "ideology of the state" as the
sociology literature describes it. The forceful support for nuclear
power was a result of a government preoccupied with fighting the
Cold War. The U.S. national security planners intentionally
idealized and deified nuclear power to serve its Cold War
psychological strategy. These psychological maneuverings attached
important symbolic meaning to nuclear power. This symbolism, in
turn, explains the society-wide enthusiasm. The fabricated myth of
the Atomic Age became a self-fulfilling prophecy and ushered in a
bandwagon market. On the other hand, a confused, indeterminate, and
relatively powerless welfare state stood behind synthetic fuel. The
different ideologies of the state explain the government's
different attitudes toward nuclear and synfuel endeavors. The
overarching discovery is a mode of "belief-based decision-making"
in long-term energy planning. This discovery goes against the
prevalent assumption of rational choice in social sciences. The
author argues that rational-choice assumption is inapplicable
because of the extreme long-term nature of energy planning. It is
not usually possible to predict the sociopolitical and economic
conditions in the distant future. Rational decisions require
supporting information, which often includes impossible long-term
foresights. One cannot rationally choose between one unknown and
another unknown. Pivotal decisions in long-term energy planning
must inevitably be belief based, and beliefs are subject to
political manipulation and distortions by social mechanisms.
Understanding these peculiar but pervasive characteristics of
energy business bears important lessons for today's decision making
about energy technologies, and the stakes, if anything, are even
higher than before. Energy policy communities; historians of the
Cold War, American history, and technology; and sociologists would
find this book an invaluable resource.
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