* During the past year three detailed studies that examine U.S. energy demand and supply opportunities and the policy options to accommodate them most effectively have been published. Energy Future: Report of the Energy Project at the Harvard Business School' ("the Harvard Study") has received considerable publicity. It has appeared on the best-seller lists, has been extensively reviewed in the popular press, and is routinely cited in newspaper editorials and by members of Congress. It is generally perceived as providing a costless, clean, and distributionally neutral solution to the nation's energy problems which relies heavily on promoting conservation opportunities and solar energy. Energy: The Next Twenty Years,2 a report sponsored by the Ford Foundation and administered by Resources for the Future ("the Ford Study") and Energy in America's Future,3 a study by the staff-of the Resources for the Future National Energy Strategies Project ("the RFF study") have received relatively little public attention. This is unfortunate because these two books contain much useful information and provide what I consider to be more useful frameworks for energy policy formation. Where these books have been discussed, the emphasis has been on the similarities among the three studies. While there are many common themes and some common conclusions, there are also important differences among them. In particular, the overall "ethos" of Energy Future is really quite different from that of the other two books. It argues that conservation measures coupled with the development of unconventional