The blackout of 2003 illuminated just how dependent America is
on electricity. It was not just that some 50 million people in
eight states and Ontario were cut off from their televisions,
microwaves, ATMs, and email. Without the electrical juice to keep
their sockets alive, factory managers were forced to close
production lines, city managers shut down water deliveries, grocery
store clerks watched their frozen inventory slowly melt away.
Economists estimated that the blackout cost Americans $5 billion
even as energy analysts were predicting that a similar blackout
could happen again. The catastrophe forced us to marvel at the
unusual ability of sub-microscopic particles to move like waves
inside a wire and cause bulbs to glow. It highlighted the complex
requirements for managing the massive generators, transformers,
transmission lines, and switch boxes needed to tap and deliver
flowing electrons. It encouraged us to recognize the profound
impact of electricity on all aspects of commerce and culture.
Such events as the blackout, the Enron debacle, and the
California brownouts also reveal the cracks in a 100-year-old
industry structure that have been building ever since Thomas
Edison, George Westinghouse, and their contemporaries first managed
to harness electricity and make it available to the masses, and
tycoons, such as Sam Insull and George Norris, began to concentrate
financial control and political influence. "From Edison to Enron"
traces the controversial history of this $210 billion industry--the
nation's largest--showcasing the key individuals, technological
innovations, corporate machinations, and political battles that
have been waged over its domination. Munson maintains that today's
technological and regulatory infrastructure, as a function of its
history, is a relic that has long outlived its usefulness; he
points out that two-thirds of the fuel burned to generate
electricity is lost, that Americans pay roughly $100 billion too
much each year for heat and power, and that environmentally
unfriendly generators are the nation's largest polluters.
Meanwhile, innovations in technology and business models are being
blocked by entrenched monopolies. Ultimately, Munson argues that
current policies and practices, including those favored by the Bush
Administration, are preventing entrepreneurs from producing more
efficient, healthy, and sustainable power supplies. Moreover, he
presents an agenda for business and policy reforms that will
stimulate economic development in the United States and around the
world.
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