Nature Myths and Policy Design

Energy efficiency was not viewed as a resource by utilities until very recently because they emphasized demand expansion. Now that attention has shifted to the supply side, utilities are actually paying energy service companies for the avoided costs of building new plants to generate more electricity. Efficiency is now seen as a resource. Two distinctive policy responses can be made to climatic change. Each has a moral component. Each is supported by a distinctive myth about the nature of resources. The first policy response is the preventivist. This view is supported by a naturalistic philosophical perspective that holds it is morally wrong to mess with nature. The myth holds that nature is fragile and natural resources are scarce. The second approach is adaptivist. In this approach, the underlying nature myth perceives nature as robust and that nature does not become unbalanced easily.