From Edison to Enron: The Business of Power and What It Means for the Future of Electricity - Hardcover

From Edison to Enron; The Business of Power and What It Means for the Future of Electricity

Hardcover. Zustand: Very good. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Very good. First Printing [Stated]. [8], 206, [2] pages. Inscribed by the author on the fep. Inscription reads To Professor Neff: A true champion of efficiency and innovation. Dick. Chapters include An Industry in Transition; Early Competition; Monopolists; The Golden Era and Shattered Momentum; Partial Competition; Stresses; Entrepreneurs; Modern Technologies; Barriers to Innovation; and Innovation-Based Restructuring; Also contains Notes and Index. From Edison to Enron is a compact history of U.S. electrical utilities that demonstrates the urgent need for reform and explains how Americans can use new technologies to become more efficient, less dependent on oil imports, and more environmentally responsible. This book is not only essential reading for anyone who cares about the electric bill, but also for anyone concerned about what we bequeath the next generation. Richard (Dick) Munson is an American author and clean energy advocate. His book, "Tech to Table: 25 Innovators Reimagining Food," was released by Island Press in September 2021. His previous book, Tesla: Inventor of the Modern, was published by W. W. Norton in May 2018. Author of five other books with topics that range from U.S. government energy policy to profiles of tycoon George Fabyan and oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, Munson was Director of Midwest Clean Energy for the Environmental Defense Fund, working primarily as a policy advocate for clean energy initiatives in Illinois and Ohio. 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 e-mail. 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. Artikel-Nr. 83719

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