Impacts of energy R&D strategies of OECD members on the U.S.

During the past 20 years, responses to the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the subsequent unprecedented world-oil price increases established by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries by oil-poor member countries of the OECD, such as France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Sweden, have spawned formidable competitors in the global energy-technology marketplace for U.S. firms. Protection from the economic ramifications of high imported oil use and the recognition of the advantages of developing competitive technology exports provided a sustained motivation for many national governments to make substantial expenditures for the development of advanced energy technologies. These national strategies have produced competitive industrial capabilities in nuclear-reactor, combined-cycle power-plant, solar-photovoltaic, clean coal-combustion, biomass, and fuel-cell technologies that represent growth opportunities in industrialized countries as well as the developed world during the next several decades. This erosion of the relative U.S. competitive position in international energy-technology markets is likely to impact the U.S. balance of trade negatively in the future.