The Last Energy War

A fast-paced, shoot-from-the-hip "people's history," The Last Energy War is an accessible, entertaining, and infuriating narration of how the electric power business started, how it almost bankrupted the nation, and how it is now soaking the public to pay for its trillion-dollar atomic mistake. From the electric chair to Chernobyl, from Thomas Edison to Cleveland's "boy mayor" Dennis Kucinich, this fascinating little book shows how the mega-utilities squashed solar power, how a military-utility alliance helped force atomic reactors down the public throat without a vote, and how a score of bought state legislatures have already handed corrupt utilities $200 billion in pure pork through a bogus deregulatory process. Merciless in its Robber Baron critique, The Last Energy War also builds on American heroes such as Franklin Roosevelt and George Norris to offer a blueprint for how we can take back out power supply. Relentlessly optimistic, it is the one book you must read to understand what's really happening to you when you turn on your lights—and then get the bill.