CAN CLEAN ENERGY POLICY PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY?

摘要

Federal and, especially, state policymakers deserve great credit for helping move solar, wind, and other renewables out of the lab and into the marketplace. As these technologies graduate from niche markets into the mainstream, their enabling policy landscape warrants rethinking. Back when solar cells produced barely enough electricity to power a pocket calculator, it made good sense to focus on their enormous potential to advance environmental sustainability and promote them at all cost. With policymakers seeking to solidify their commitment to a clean energy future and to secure reelection, it came as no surprise that economic sustainability soon took over as the defining element of renewable energy policies. The time has come to complete the clean energy policy puzzle by honoring the social dimension of sustainability. The framework of proxy criteria proposed in this essay is intended to help policymakers and scholars alike as they assess the social implications of today's policy landscape and consider improvements for the next generation of clean energy policies-a generation that, hopefully, will simultaneously promote environmental, economic, and social sustainability.