This history puts business government relations in modern America in a critical new perspective.

List of charts and figures; List of tables; Editors' preface; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction: the political economy of energy; Part I. The Transition to Peace and Fluid Fuels, 1945-58: 2. The foundations of postwar policy; 3. 'Stepping right out' with synthetic fuels; 4. Regulating natural gas in the absence of economics; 5. Oil imports: the failure of voluntarism; Part II. Managing Surplus Through the Politics of Stasis, 1959-68: 6. Oil import quotas; 7. Formula for shortage: natural gas price controls; 8. Sunfuels revisited: nostrum for the coal industry; Part III. The Second Energy Transition: Adjustment to Depletion, 1969-80: 9. Energy crisis and structural change; 10. Equity versus efficiency: oil price controls; 11. Natural gas: the dilemma of regulatory transition; 12. Natural gas: the consequences of scarcity; 13. National energy management; 14. Business, government, and public policy; Index.