Although it is fashionable to say so, it is not true that there is an energy “crisis.” What there is in this country at present is a small energy shortage. It is certain, however, that this shortage will get worse, probably to a degree at which “crisis” will become an appropriate description.
To build a generating plant takes about ten years even without the administrative and legal delays introduced by government bureaus, ecologues and lawyers, and not enough plants are being built at present to meet the minimum predictable demand a few years from now. There are also rapidly increasing difficulties in obtaining a sufficient supply of the oil and natural gas on which our production of both electrical and mechanical energy chiefly depends for the present and for some while, at least, to come.
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