The Power Brokers: The Struggle to Shape and Control the Electric Power Industry

Great read for anyone interested in the energy industry and we got to where we are now. From Pearl St. to The PNW, a detailed account is presented.

Highly informative, albeit a bit verbose and technical. Not for noobies to the electric power sector. Important for understanding how Insull created the state regulated electric monopoly corporations, and how Ken Lay destroyed California's electricity "market", and deregulation/restructuring and power markets and public vs. private control of electricity, and why cap and trade is so successful.

So far I have read the chapter on Samuel Insull. It was first-rate.

Interesting historical perspective on how some of today's major electric utilities got started.

The author is clearly an advocate of a "public power" approach to the electric industry.

As a recent college grad newly employed in the U.S. Power-gen industry, I'd spent the first year of my career reaching for context as to 'why' and 'how' the industry had evolved to its current state. This book provided an enjoyable narrative that took me from the industry's inception to present day, highlighting important organizations and players along the way.For anyone interested in or employed in the power-gen industry (especially millennials and younger) this book provides a great starting point by laying out the timeline of the industry and its pivotal players and events - setting a base for further exploration and learning.Highly recommended, it was as exciting to me as Daniel Yergin's 'The Prize'.

As adveretised

Narrowly, Power Brokers is the story of the men who built and shaped America's electric power industry. Broadly, Power Brokers is a story of what is popularly derided as "crony capitalism" - how men of ambition manipulated government regulation to build vast empires insulated from competition. Lambert spares neither the left nor the right and shows how whether the government was attempting to create highly-regulated local monopolies or trying to deregulate under pressure from advocates of free markets, the winners were always the Power Brokers, who used campaign contributions and their own expertise to manipulate elected officials. From Samuel Insull to Ken Lay, Lambert brings to life the characters behind the industry, their rags-to-riches tales, their hubris, and their deft ear for the political causes of their times. The book is crisply written and packed with primary research and clever legal interpretations.