The power brokers : the struggle to shape and control the electric power industry / Jeremiah D. Lambert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lambert, Jeremiah D., 1934- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electric utilities--United States--History.

Electric utilities.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (395 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : The MIT Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"For more than a century, the interplay between private, investor-owned electric utilities and government regulators has shaped the electric power industry in the United States. Provision of an essential service to largely dependent consumers invited government oversight and ever more sophisticated market intervention. The industry has sought to manage, co-opt, and profit from government regulation. In The Power Brokers, Jeremiah Lambert maps this complex interaction from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Lambert's narrative focuses on seven important industry players: Samuel Insull, the principal industry architect and prime mover; David Lilienthal, chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), who waged a desperate battle for market share; Don Hodel, who presided over the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in its failed attempt to launch a multi-plant nuclear power program; Paul Joskow, the MIT economics professor who foresaw a restructured and competitive electric power industry; Enron's Ken Lay, master of political influence and market-rigging; Amory Lovins, a pioneer proponent of sustainable power; and Jim Rogers, head of Duke Energy, a giant coal-fired utility threatened by decarbonization. Lambert tells how Insull built an empire in a regulatory vacuum, and how the government entered the electricity marketplace by making cheap hydropower available through the TVA. He describes the failed overreach of the BPA, the rise of competitive electricity markets, Enron's market manipulation, Lovins's radical vision of a decentralized industry powered by renewables, and Rogers's remarkable effort to influence cap-and-trade legislation. Lambert shows how the power industry has sought to use regulatory change to preserve or secure market dominance and how rogue players have gamed imperfectly restructured electricity markets. Integrating regulation and competition in this industry has proven a difficult experiment."

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1 Samuel Insull: Architect and Prime Mover of the Electric Utility Business in the United States; 2 David Lilienthal and the Era of Public Power; 3 Bonneville Power: Overreach and Disaster; 4 Paul Joskow and the Intellectual Blueprint for Industry Reform; 5 Ken Lay: Competition Betrayed; 6 Amory Lovins: Prophet of a New Order; 7 Jim Rogers and the Politics of Accommodation; 8 Conclusion; Notes; Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

9780262330992

0262330997

9780262330985

0262330989

OCLC:

919612420