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From the editors of PublicAgenda.org, an entertaining, irreverent, and absolutely essential nonpartisan guide to the energy crisis
Energy: It's a problem that never goes away (despite our best efforts as a nation to ignore it). Why has there been so much talk and so little action? In Who Turned Out the Lights? Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson offer a much-needed reality check: The "Drill, Baby, Drill" versus "Every Day Is Earth Day" battle is not solving our problems, and the finger-pointing is just holding us up.
Sorting through the political posturing and confusing techno-speak, they provide a fair-minded, "let's skip the jargon" explanation of the choices we face. And chapters such as "It's All Right Now (In Fact, It's a Gas)" prove that, while the problem is serious, getting a grip on it doesn't have to be. In the end, the authors present options from the right, left, and center but take just one position: The country must change the way it gets and uses energy, and the first step is to understand the choices.
Preface: Where We're Coming From xv
Chapter 1 Six Reasons the United States Needs to Get Its Energy Act Together 1
Playing the Blame Game
The Great Energy Debate Pop Quiz
Suppose People in China Really Start Living the Way We Do
Chapter 2 Groundhog Day, or Haven't We Seen This Movie Before? 24
America's Energy Chronicles, or How We Got to Where We Are Today
Chapter 3 Giving the Voters What They Want 36
Chapter 4 Seemed Like a Good idea at the Time, or How Three Flawed Ideas Could Get Us Off Track 43
A Message to Our Readers
Chapter 5 The Basics: Ten Facts You Need to Know 57
The Great All-in-One Fossil Fuel Centerfold
Chapter 6 Double, Double, Oil, and Trouble 81
Peak Oil, or When Will We Run Out?
The Return of Snidely Whiplash: Are Evil Speculators to Blame?
Chapter 7 You Load Sixteen Tons and What Do You Get? 110
Clean Coal: The Ad Wars
Chapter 8 It's All Right Now (In Fact, It's a Gas) 129
Chapter 9 Time for the Nuclear Option? 141
Chernobyl and Three Mile Island: Twice-Told Tales
Chapter 10 As Long as the Wind Blows and the Sun Shines 162
Dam It: Hydroelectric Power
Looking for the Newest Hot Spots: Geothermal Power
Grid and Bear It: Why the United States Needs a New Electricity Grid
Chapter 11 No Place Like [an Energy-Efficient] Home 193
Are We Looking to Live in All the Wrong Places?
On the Rebound: Why More Efficiency Doesn't
Always Save Energy
Chapter 12 Driven to Distraction 211
The Big Bang Theory of Auto Safety
Take Your Pick: Food or Fuel?
Chapter 13 Looking for Mr. Wizard 235
Green-Collar Jobs, You Say? Name Some
Chapter 14 Sitting on Top of the World247
Setting theGlobal Thermostat: How to Tell if We're Really
Making Progress on Climate Change
Chapter 15 So Now What? Ideas from the Left, Right, and Center 261
This Little Piggy Went to Market; This Little Piggy Passed Laws
President Obama's Promises
Chapter 16 The Reality Show 292
Acknowledgments 301
Notes 303
scentednights2002
Posted November 9, 2009
Who Turned Out the Lights? is an invaluable resource for the person who is trying to decipher all the political jargon out there right now. This book goes beyond partisan explanations of the energy crisis and shows all sides of the argument in language your average person can understand.
This book begins with how we got to where we are today and goes on to discuss the challenges we are facing as a country. Who Turned Out the Lights? talks about all forms of energy from coal to oil to electricity to solar to wind to geothermal. It explains how each type of energy is made and the pros and cons of using it or other sources.
The authors discuss a wide variety of topics including global warming, energy efficient homes, hybrid cars, nuclear power accidents, our aging electric grid and President Obama's promises regarding the energy crisis.
If you're looking for an easy to understand book that will introduce you to the energy crisis and offer non-biased explanations and suggestions, I'd highly recommend you read this book.
Anonymous
Posted January 27, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
Energy: It's a problem that never goes away (despite our best efforts as a nation to ignore it). Why has there been so much talk and so little action? In Who Turned Out the Lights? Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson offer a much-needed reality check: The "Drill, Baby, Drill" versus "Every Day Is Earth Day" battle is ...