Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #617173 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In the wake of this summer's failure of the aging power grid, Vaitheeswaran, the author of this timely book, highlights the trends he believes will transform the energy game: liberalization of the energy markets, the increasing influence of the environmental movement and recent innovations in hydrogen fuel-cell technology. In short essays, he covers many of today's energy problems, such as reliance on oil, global warming, air pollution and the dangers inherent in nuclear power. Micropower from fuel cells-big batteries that produce electricity by combining hydrogen fuel and available oxygen-will be our salvation, he asserts, because this technology makes possible small, clean power plants that can be located close to homes and factories, enabling power to flow not from on high but from the grassroots. Vaitheeswaran, an Economist correspondent, profiles some of the energy visionaries he reveres, such as Amory Lovins, a pioneer in the field of micropower, and Firoz Rasul of Ballard Power Systems, a Canadian fuel-cell firm. He also attempts to debunk some of the "truisms" currently spouted on both the left and the right, arguing, for example, that deregulation is not the problem, and that the Kyoto treaty is flawed and would not have solved global warming problems even if the U.S. had signed it. His lucid and entertaining book is informative and insightful, but his prediction that hydrogen fuel-cell technology will take off in a decade or so will strike some as overly optimistic.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Should the goals of environmentalism be advanced by governmental dictate or by market forces? Both should be used, concludes this survey of energy production and pricing by the Economist's beat reporter. Accepting the premise that injecting carbon into the atmosphere is too dangerous to countenance, Vaitheeswaran took to the field to interview executives of oil and utility companies, regulators, chiefs of environmental groups, and techno-proselytizers, such as the advocates of hydrogen fuel cells. He also breaks down topical events, such as California's fiasco of partial electricity deregulation or the global emissions-control treaty (the Kyoto Protocol of 1997), arenas where the regulation-versus-pricing approaches to energy and environmentalism played out. To these discussions, Vaitheeswaran brings both journalistic pizzazz and a commonsensical questioning of the claims of those vested in the oil-consuming status quo and of moral preeners among environmentalists. Polemically-minded readers will pass this work by, but solution-oriented ones will read it with optimism. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"In a crucial area of public discourse that is too often dominated by flamethrowers from either side of the political spectrum, Vijay Vaitheeswaran's "Power to the People" provides a welcome relief: a balanced assessment of where we are, how we got here, and where our actions today may be taking us in the years ahead."
--Robert N. Stavins, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
"We are at an energy crossroads, and the path taken in the next few years will affect every person on the planet. Vijay Vaitheeswaran has produced a thoughtful and provocative book that maps the choices we face and the trade-offs we will encounter. "Power to the People "explodes myths, highlights our energy options, and shows the way to an energy future that is very different from the past. This volume is must reading for anyone who cares about the environment."
--Daniel Esty, Director, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy
"Vijay Vaitheeswaran's analysis of where we stand right now on the energy front is well reasoned, insightful and tempered. At a time when the whole world is increasingly worried about our energy future, Mr. Vaitheeswaran takes us on an engaging, and ultimately hopeful, exploratory journey, investigating the many choices that lie ahead."
--Jeremy Rifkin, author of "The Hydrogen Economy"
"Many books on energy are filled with table after mind-numbing table, others with paeans to the all-powerful forces of free markets or the supposed magic of green energy technologies. Vaitheeswaran has written a book on energy that is factual, non-polemical and-can it really be?-fun to read! No one will agree with everything the author has to say about the world'senergy future. Everyone will finish this book knowing much more about this important subject than they did before."
--Paul R. Portney, President, Resources for the Future
"Written in the easy, fluent style that makes Vijay Vaitheeswaran so readable in "The Economist," "Power to the People" examines the energy future, including the prospects for fossil fuels, with a calm rationality that will surely command the respect of people across the political spectrum. More to the point, it does so in a spirit of optimism that doesn't prescribe a disruptive trade-off between preserving our environment and providing enough energy for continuing human progress."
--BP chief executive, Lord Browne of Madingley.
"The post-petroleum age is approaching rapidly, and who better to herald its arrival than a top journalist for "The Economist," In "Power to the People," Vijay Vaitheeswaran compellingly describes the vast innovations in technology and policy that are beginning to shake the energy industry to its core. It is a sign of the times that "alternative" energy is now attracting as much interest from business executives focused on the bottom line as it is from ecologists focused on climate change: as described in this book, the "coming energy revolution" is as logical, and perhaps as inevitable, as it is necessary."
--Christopher Flavin, President, Worldwatch Institute
"People need power. The challenge of meeting future energy needs has long moved beyond the realm of increased supply. Vaitheeswaran's analysis offers both a strategic ivory tower perspective as well as a breathtaking review of paradigm shifts and new technological frontiers. This is a book about the future - andthe choices we face. Whether you are a pessimist, skeptic or optimist - "Power to the People" will challenge your assumptions without offering simplistic answers."
--Achim Steiner, Director General, IUCN - The World Conservation Union
"The post-fossil-fuel age is coming faster than you think, and "Power to the People" shows why. Discover the energy future in an important, lively and highly readable book ."
--Gregg Easterbrook, author of "The Progress Paradox "

Customer Reviews

Sure Is Sunny In Here
For an overview of up-and-coming sources of energy for the new millennium you can't do much better than this book, but beware of its very optimistic and not always realistic examinations of the politics and economics of energy. As a policy expert, Vaitheeswaran certainly has keen insights into what is going on in energy today, from actual vs. perceived shortages in fossil fuels to the latest cutting-edge research into new technologies such as fuel cells. Here you will get great insights into how the current market works, with some in-depth debunking of popular assumptions concerning issues like the California crisis in 2000-01, or the true political machinations and motivations of OPEC. Vaitheeswaran ably documents how humans will continue to have access to reliable energy, in whatever form, and that world society is hardly on the brink of a major catastrophic shortage.

However, this book loses steam significantly when Vaitheeswaran starts to analyze the possible political and economic tools that will be necessary to keep the future energy market healthy. Basically, he is dangerously close to the dogma of the free market and free trade as the cure for all ills. Yes, as Americans we know that intelligently managed markets are essential. However, after fruitfully explaining how current energy markets are distorted by cronyism, tax breaks, subsidies, corporate welfare, and other inequitable political shenanigans, the possibility of such distortions is strangely missing from Vaitheeswaran's analyses of future trends. It's as if the free market, once allowed to roll, would suddenly create a perfect world devoid of human corruption, and not just in market-savvy America. This is the unrealistic message overall - a corrupt present shall be replaced by an unrealistic free market utopia around the world. And generally, in attempting to cover all sides of these issues from the point of view of everyone from radical environmentalists to fossil fuel plutocrats, Vaitheeswaran ultimately fails to land squarely in any camp, which saps the power from many of his conclusions. While much of this book is quite useful in describing exciting new technologies, sunny optimism often blinds the reader from dirtier realities. [~doomsdayer520~]

Thought Provoking Book
The title caught my attention..and I started reading..

Good book to get a peek on a few up and coming possibilities in the Energy Industry. The author has a very good ability to write so that it connects well and keeps interest.

I really enjoyed reading about the various possibilities that the coming change in the energy industry might entail.. Especially about various developments in the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen world.

The author has done comprehensive research for this book which is admirable and there is a lot of journalism in the book.

Overall a good book. Highly recommend it if you are curious about the energy industry trends

Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark
If you are looking for a relentlessly optimistic market-oriented analysis of the energy future, this is the book for you. It is well-written, entertaining, and informative. If, however, you are looking for a well-reasoned resonse to the arguments of Kenneth Deffeyes, Hubbert's Peak, David Goodstein's, Out of Gas, or Richard Heinberg's, The Party's Over, you will be disappointed. Vaitheeswaran never addresses their arguments. Rather, he dismisses them without so much as a by your leave. For example his analysis of the question as to whether we are facing an age of sharply increasing energy costs due ever decreassing rates of recovery of fossil fuels consists of a series of quotes from the optimists. His conclusion? Don't worry, be happy! Happily, or unhappily, the next ten years will tell us whether we should have heeded the "Chicken Littles." Unfortunately, if they are right it will be too late. In fact, it is probably already too late.