The Critical U.S. Energy Situation

The United States is already in a critical energy supply and demand situation. We cannot meet our present energy demand. There is no way we can meet the fantastic energy demand between now and the year 2000 without a yearly increase in the energy imported from overseas. It chills one's blood to know that we spent over $3 billion in 1971 for imported energy. We have been driven into this corner by senseless, inflexible government regulations. We are unable to work ourselves out of this corner because of the demands of extreme environmentalists. If we are to continue to have increasing governmental control, we engineers must provide reliable technical guidance to offset the over-zealous hysteria that finally comes to the attention of our law makers. Engineers are the ones with the background to help. You must make yourselves heard—you must meet with and serve on boards and committees where your voices can be heard before decisions are made.