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SOCIAL SCIENCE

Energy Policy, the Environment, and the New Energy Economy


I. THE HISTORICAL ARC OF ENERGY POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT 33%

A. Energy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
1. The Electric Age
2. The Era of Oil
a. The Historical Role of Oil
b. OPEC and the 1973 Oil Crisis
c. The 1979 Oil Crisis

B. The Evolution of U.S. Energy Policy
1. Where it Began: The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 and the
National Energy Act of 1978
2. Later Attempts at Sweeping Reform
a. The Energy Policy Act of 1992
b. The Energy Policy Act of 2005
c. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007


II. ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT 33%

A. The Modern Environmental Movement
1. Post-Silent Spring Environmental Activism
2. Federal Protection of the Environment
a. Legislation
b. Post-Environmentalism

B. The Global Commons and Climate Change
1. Establishing the Science
a. The Global Atmosphere
b. Emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
c. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
2. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
3. The Kyoto Protocol


III. THE NEW ENERGY ECONOMY 34%

A. Trending Toward Renewable Energy
1. Sources of Renewable Energy
a. Wind Power
b. Solar Power
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c. Biofuels
d. Geothermal Energy
2. Electricity Grid Transformation to Accommodate Variable Generation
a. Smart Grid
b. Energy Storage

B. Public Electric Utilities
1. Why Do We Regulate Utilities?
2. Traditional Utility Regulation

C. Dethroning King Coal: The Shale Gas Revolution

D. Low-Hanging Fruit: The Future of Energy Efficiency

E. The Renaissance of Nuclear Power