Fifty Years of Energy Policy, 1973-2023: Lessons for the Future

An exemplar of “applied history” as pioneered by Ernest May and Richard Neustadt, Fifty Years of Energy Policy, 1973–2023 by John Deutch masterfully demonstrates how analyzing the consequences of past policy decisions can help anticipate likely outcomes of different policy choices today. The high stakes of energy policy and practice are higher than ever making Fifty Years of Energy Policy timely for a wide range of readers—specialists in related fields, policy makers, investors, voters.

John Deutch’s combination of technical expertise, policy experience at the highest levels of government, and his natural instincts as a teacher makes for an unusually accessible book about a complex and fast-evolving topic.

The structure of Fifty Years of Energy Policy is elegant: brief and astute summaries of energy developments and policies from the Nixon to the Biden administrations followed by a concluding section that identifies five distinctive features of the past fifty years that remain relevant to current energy policy assessments. Deutch applies these to frame his insightful evaluation of climate change policies today.

Deutch’s approach to “applied history” will appeal to readers looking to evaluate a wide range of daunting issues—the food system, cryptocurrencies, social media, healthcare, housing, and transportation among them. The more complex and consequential the policy domain, the more valuable Fifty Years of Energy Policy becomes.

John Deutch is an emeritus Institute Professor at MIT where he has been a member of the faculty since 1970. He has served as chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Dean of Science, and Provost. In the Carter Administration, he served as Director of Energy Research, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Technology, and Undersecretary in the Department of Energy. In the first Clinton term, he served as DOD Undersecretary for Acquisition and Technology, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Director of Central Intelligence. He has been a member of the Defense Science Board, the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Committee, the president’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; the White House Science Council (1985–1989); the president’s committee of advisors on Science and Technology (1997–2001), and the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (2008–2016). Deutch has published widely on technical and policy aspects of energy and the environment and has been a member of the board or of the technical advisory committees of several energy companies.