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The good performance of energy markets during the seven or eight years following the Gulf War masked many continuing and emerging energy policy challenges that derive from larger domestic and foreign policy issues. The changes in world oil, domestic natural gas, and electricity markets in 1999 and especially 2000 likely reflect the effects of ignoring some of these challenges.

In little more than two centuries the United States has transformed itself from a fledgling nation built on an agrarian economy to the strongest industrial power the world has ever seen. One of the major reasons why the country was able to undergo such a change so rapidly was the high availability of cheap energy. This energy was almost exclusively in the form of fossil fuels: oil, gas and coal. While this system created great economic and industrial success, many problems have been detected in the past few decades regarding the use of fossil fuels. These issues include limited supply, increased cost, higher dependence on erratic foreign nations and most notably, effects on climate. Some of these problems are more immediate than others, but all of them have prompted lawmakers, corporations and nonprofits to take a closer look at how to best combat the American reliance on fossil fuels. Proposals for change include a wide array of suggested solutions, ranging from simply making current technologies as energy efficient as possible to implementing alternative energy sources across the country. This thesis seeks to address the changes that should be made, and the role the government should play in inducing change, in a transition away from fossil fuels.

Since the discovery of oil well drilling, energy policy (particularly offshore petroleum policy over the past three decades) has led the United States, and indeed the industrialized world, into a cycle of dependency, profit, and risk taking that made a Macondo-like blowout likely, if not inevitable. This article examines the broad political, economic, technological, and environmental contexts surrounding the growth and development of both our ability to obtain petroleum and our dependency on it. The authors use the tools of environmental sociology, environmental history, and political ecology to trace the path to the current situation in which the myth of "energy independence" is used to justify practices that are counter to the very concept.

Shortly after taking office, President George W. Bush established the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG), headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, to examine the "energy crisis" the US faces. On May 17th, the president presented the recommendations of the NEPDG, a main theme of which is the need to diversify the fuel sources & geographic sources of energy. This study examines the history & outlook of fossil fuels & analyzes various energy strategies to enhance US energy security. For the foreseeable future, oil will continue to play a significant role in the energy mix & the Persian Gulf will retain its strategic importance for US energy security. 3 Tables. Adapted from the source document.