"If Shoreham had been turned on, things would be pretty much the same as they are now," said one energy economist, Charles Komanoff.

Research Papers in Economics has a list of energy economists and a ranking of the same.

The old ratio of one to one between economic growth and energy use was permanently "decoupled," as energy economists say.

William Flynn Martin (born October 4, 1950) is an American energy economist, educator and international diplomat.

Charles Komanoff, an energy economist in New York, said the commercial market in climate neutrality could have even more harmful effects.

"Oil is cheaper than bottled water," said Charles Komanoff, an energy economist in Manhattan who has long followed the nuclear industry.

It also reinforced an emerging ideological divide between energy economists on the extent of the yet to be named effect.

"It really wasn't hard to attract customers to the program," said Steven B. Smiley, an energy economist here who guided the windmill project.

"We've paid for cleaner air," Mr. Gupta, the energy economist, said.

Philip Verleger, an energy economist, estimates that swaps could reduce crude oil prices by $3 or $4 a barrel, a fall of more than 10 percent.