Tra mito e realtà: la transizione energetica di Jimmy Carter, 1977-80

This essay takes a critical look at US President Jimmy Carter’s energy policy and rhetoric of “energy transition” in the late 1970s, which are sometimes depicted as forerunning more recent policies and discourses aimed at a post-carbon “ecological transition”. Based on a wide array of both primary and secondary sources this essay shows that, while the President was indeed sensible to environmental concerns, his priorities had little to do with present-day concerns with global warming. Premised on the belief that the high energy prices of the 1970s reflected an “impending scarcity” of oil and gas, Carter’s policies paradoxically contributed to facilitate the relaunch of the consumption of fossil fuels which characterized the 1980s.