| Over the course of the last decade, there has been mounting concern on a variety of fronts about the uncertain long-term availability of nonrenewable energy resources. As a consequence of this concern, the need for actively promoting energy conservation has received widespread attention. Urban and regional planning, by virture of its capacity for shaping the patterns of physical development and, concomitantly, the use of embodied resources, has been one of the fields in which there has been a steady growth in awareness of potential conservation opportunities.;The emergence of energy conservation as an increasingly accepted planning objective has naturally added a new dimension to the evaluation of proposed development. Unfortunately, earlier work in the area of energy analysis has yielded what must be regarded as imperfect evaluative models for planning purposes. A possible alternative to these energetics and economics approaches, however, has now begun to emerge as an outgrowth of the environmental assessment process.;Known as energy impact assessment, this latter approach treats energy use and conservation as legitimate aspects of a project's total impact on its surroundings. Because the procedure is one which has not yet been widely publicized or documented, the study undertaken delves into the merit of such an assessment orientation in some detail. Specifically, the research focusses on the precedent established in California during the period 1975-80, using for illustrative ends four case studies of actual city and county experiences.;On balance, the analysis of case material suggests there are a variety of deficiencies associated with the early California example. Since these deficiencies warn planners of the need for caution in extending energy assessment to other jurisdictions, the study reexamines the ground rules for applying this form of evaluation. These revised ground rules, while offering the promise of more meaningful results from a planning standpoint, also impose some unavoidable constraints on energy assessment's prospective contribution to the overall conservation movement. |
