Strengths in a managed economy

THE EDITOR: Major problems plaguing the energy industry are in its inability to metamorphose out of existing product and expertise mindsets. The future of energy is in diversity of product. In the product area of consideration, the past is not a unique indicator for how to envision the future and strategise development.

Diversification could encompass biofuels like ethanol that not only add markets and micro-economy but also provide energy reservoir potentials for local plant and grid. In addition, solar energy would be built into new plant to add to its operating efficiency where further surplus energy would be either transferred to the grid or sold into the network of energy industry operators.

A certain amount of managed economy authority will be necessary and, in fact, we have the experience and understanding to enter into these challenges successfully. It is impossible for index pricing or going-rate pricing to compete with the returns to be won via such broad-field market access, or to substitute for the needed authority vital for sustaining the basic outlines and fleshing out the new parts and novel dimensions.

Other problems have to do with the dismantling of the command structure in this section of the economy and the surrender to dissolving and unmanageable "market forces." Here, there is a serious contradiction at work, where a tight-knit group sets controls on the very sources of exploration and supply distribution. All results in the industry and the national welfare pivot on that. It is not a mistake of a one-time glitch but a seal of progressive decline.

E GALY

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