Policy Objectives
Climate-friendly Energy Policy: Options for the Near Term
Policy Objectives
While U.S. energy policy has many sources, forms, and influences, it is nevertheless possible to identify four traditional objectives on which U.S. energy policy has focused:
(1) a secure, plentiful, and diverse primary energy supply;
(2) a robust, reliable infrastructure for energy conversion and delivery;
(3) affordable and stable energy prices; and
(4) environmentally sustainable energy production and use.
The policy options considered in this brief serve one or more of these objectives.
Climate-friendly energy policies fall into one of three general categories—policies that:
(1) reduce GHG emissions now;
(2) promote technology advancement or infrastructure development that will reduce the costs of achieving GHG emissions reductions in the future; and
(3) minimize the amount of new capital investment in assets that would be substantially devalued (or “stranded”) if a GHG program were implemented.