Introduction

Nevertheless, an increasing number of workers in government, nationalized and private industry and the academic worlds are involved with the evolution of a British energy policy. Over the last quarter-century first the Suez crisis, then the growing world environmental movement and finally the emergence of OPEC has provoked a British response in the form of an increasing awareness of the importance of reliable energy supplies and the need for a considered energy policy. The British energy situation is still in a state of flux where decisions with long term implications need to be taken on the basis of inadequate and controversial information; decisions which will have an effect on or possibly even determine the life-style of future generations. The government is being supplied with more data and statistics than ever before on the various forms of energy source and is, in turn, being increasingly open by producing papers on the latest research and forecasts. This new concern for public participation has grown along with the wide-ranging discussion on energy policy, in spite of the fact that energy policy as an issue has not yet become an everyday concern for most of the electorate.