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POWER TO THE PEOPLE
How the Coming Energy Revolution will Transform an Industry, Change our Lives,
and Maybe Even Save the Planet
Imagine
a world where SUVs emit harmless water vapor instead
of dangerous toxins, where consumers sell electricity back
to utility companies – for
a profit?
TODAY’S ENERGY REVOLUTION IS BIGGER THAN THE INTERNET REVOLUTION
The
break-up of AT&T over two decades ago
unleashed the flurry of innovation, entrepreneurship
and investment that brought the world cellular telephones,
broadband cable, cheap long-distance
calls and, of course, the Internet. What is about to
happen in the energy realm is every bit as dramatic as
the telecommunications revolution
and much more important.
In POWER TO THE PEOPLE (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; November
2003; $25.00) Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, the energy and environment correspondent
for The Economist, explains the great opportunities in the energy realm
today. He argues that there are three interrelated forces reshaping
the world of energy:
1) The global move toward the liberalization of energy
markets. Around the world, governments are liberalizing their energy
markets and opening their borders to cross-border trade in gas and electricity.
(The result is an outpouring of entrepreneurship, financial capital,
and innovation).
2) The emergence of a new generation of market-friendly
environmental activism. Concern about local air pollution and climate
change is leading to intervention in favor of cleaner power and transport.
3) An explosion of technological innovation based on
hydrogen energy and fuel cells.
He goes on to explain how shifting to the use of hydrogen
energy will turn the energy industry—as well as the green debate—on
its head. News about the environment doesn’t usually inspire optimism,
but Vaitheeswaran’s multi-disciplinary experience allows him to
imagine an energy industry and a world in which contentious parties
work together—and in their own best interests—toward a brighter
tomorrow. Most importantly, he lays out the practical steps we’ll
take to get there. He cuts through the rhetoric of the right and the
left and finds the ideas he believes will really work—such as
free markets working together with environmental goals—and profiles
quirky and visionary players from all sides. The planet-saving
ideas he reports on are far from idealists' whims. They are supported
by the
likes of Ford, GE, Motorola, Shell Oil, BP, the US Army,
and Presidents Bush and Clinton, as well as environmentalists.
Cleary, this shift away from an oil-based industry will
have huge ramifications—politically as well as environmentally.
Energy is the world’s biggest business, generating nearly 2 trillion
dollars a year, and the way we use energy now is the single most destructive
thing we do to our planet. The key to sustainable development lies in
the clean use of energy and POWER TO THE PEOPLE shows us how today’s
energy revolution promises just that.
Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran is The Economist’s Environment and Energy
Correspondent, covering developments in politics, economics,
business, and technology as they relate to energy issues. He has received
awards
for his journalism, and previously wrote about Latin
America as the magazine's regional bureau chief in Mexico City. Born
in Madras, India,
he grew up in Cheshire, Connecticut and graduated from
MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering. He now lives in New York.
www.vijaytothePeople.com
POWER TO THE PEOPLE: How the Coming Energy Revolution
Will Transform an Industry, Change Our Lives, and Maybe Even Save The
Planet will be published by FSG in November 2003. For more information,
please contact Sarita Varma at 212-206-5327 / svarma@fsgbooks.com
    
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