Improved Energy Contingency Planning Is Needed To Manage Future Energy Shortages More Effectively

Because of increasing energy emergencies, such as the natural gas shortage during the 1976-77 winter and the threat of a lengthy coal strike during the 1977-78 winter, efforts were initiated to develop an energy emergency contingency plan. In November 1977, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued an Energy Emergency Planning Guide to Government and State officials.

Although the guide was a reasonable first step in energy emergency planning, some of its proposals were too general, some were unrealistic, it reflected a lack of coordination, and did not assign monitoring responsibilities. The guide was of limited use to State officials and to Federal task forces established to monitor energy supplies. The Federal effort to minimize the effects of the coal strike was generally limited to monitoring energy supplies. Federal, State, and industry actions were generally responsive to emergency needs, but most States were reluctant to impose emergency measures. Aside from coal miners and certain transportation workers, unemployment attributable to the coal strike was relatively low. The dollar cost of the strike was felt mainly by consumers. Current DOE planning efforts include the development of an Energy Emergency Information System. DOE will continue to use contractors although contractual services for the planning guide were not very satisfactory.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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