THE INCREASINGLY COMPLEX CHALLENGE OF RESOURCE ACQUISITION
Energy policy and regulatory decision making in the American electricity sector have always been a challenge because the U. S. is among the most electricity intensive of all nations and it has an extremely wide set of resources with which to meet its electricity needs. Moreover, in the past quarter of a century a fierce debate about the existence and response to climate change, a roller coaster ride in fossil fuel prices and a fizzled “nuclear renaissance” have made things much more difficult by casting doubt on the three primary fuels on which the U.S. relies for almost 90 percent of its electricity. In spite of this uncertainty, because electricity is an essential building block of modern life decision makers are under constant real-time pressures to ensure electricity supply at affordable prices.