The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World

by Daniel Yergin

Overview

In this gripping account of the quest for the energy that our world needs, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Prize. A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change. It is a story that spans the energies on which our civilization has been built and the new energies that are competing to replace them. From the jammed streets of Beijing to the shores of the Caspian Sea, from the conflicts in the Mideast to Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley, Yergin takes us into the decisions that are shaping our future.

The drama of oil-the struggle for access, the battle for control, the insecurity of supply, the consequences of use, its impact on the global economy, and the geopolitics that dominate it-continues to profoundly affect our world.. Yergin tells the inside stories of the oil market and the surge in oil prices, the race to control the resources of the former Soviet empire, and the massive mergers that transformed the landscape of world oil. He tackles the toughest questions: Will we run out of oil? Are China and the United States destined to come into conflict over oil? How will a turbulent Middle East affect the future of oil supply?

Yergin also reveals the surprising and sometimes tumultuous history of nuclear and coal, electricity, and the "shale gale" of natural gas, and how each fits into the larger marketplace. He brings climate change into unique perspective by offering an unprecedented history of how the field of climate study went from the concern of a handful of nineteenth- century scientists preoccupied with a new Ice Age into one of the most significant issues of our times.

He leads us through the rebirth of renewable energies and explores the distinctive stories of wind, solar, and biofuels. He offers a perspective on the return of the electric car, which some are betting will be necessary for a growing global economy.

The Quest presents an extraordinary range of characters and dramatic stories that illustrate the principles that will shape a robust and flexible energy security system for the decades to come. Energy is humbling in its scope, but our future requires that we deeply understand this global quest that is truly reshaping our world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594202834
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/20/2011
Pages:	816
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Daniel Yergin is one of the most influential voices on energy in the world and a highly respected authority on energy, international politics and economics. He is a recipient of the United States Energy Award for "lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding." Dr. Yergin received the Pulitzer for The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, which became a number one best seller and was made into an eight-hour PBS/BBC series seen by 20 million people in the United States. He is chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the leading research and consulting firms in its field. He serves as CNBC's Global Energy Expert.

Table of Contents

Maps and Charts xi

Introduction 1

Prologue 9

Part 1 The New World of Oil

1 Russia Returns 21

2 The Caspian Derby 44

3 Across the Caspian 65

4 "Supermajors" 84

5 The Petro-State 108

6 Aggregate Disruption 127

7 War in Iraq 143

8 The Demand Shock 161

9 China's Rise 190

10 China in the Fast Lane 211

Part 2 Securing the Supply

11 Is the World Running Out of Oil? 229

12 Unconventional 244

13 The Security of Energy 266

14 Shifting Sands in the Persian Gulf 285

15 Gas on Water 312

16 The Natural Gas Revolution 327

Part 3 The Electric Age

17 Alternating Currents 347

18 The Nuclear Cycle 364

19 Breaking the Bargain 382

20 The Urgency of Fuel Choice 399

Part 4 Climate and Carbon

21 Glacial Change 423

22 The Age of Discovery 436

23 The Road to Rio 457

24 Making a Market 475

25 On the Global Agenda 493

26 In Search of Consensus 509

Part 5 New Energies

27 Rebirth of Renewables 527

28 Science Experiment 553

29 Alchemy of Shining Light 569

30 Mystery of Wind 595

31 The Fifth Fuel-Efficiency 620

32 Closing the Conservation Gap 632

Part 6 Road to the Future

33 Carbohydrate Man 649

34 Internal Fire 671

35 The Great Electric Car Experiment 692

Conclusion: "A Great Revolution" 718

Acknowledgments 726

Photo Credits 730

Notes 732

Bibliography 770

Index 788

What People are Saying About This

Susan Hockfield

“The search for sufficient, clean energy represents the defining challenge of this generation. Daniel Yergin has masterfully connected the forces of economics and geopolitics with the complex science of energy production and climate change. The Quest provides a lucid guide through the forest of issues that stands between us and a sustainable energy future.” --(Susan Hockfield, President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology )

Bill Gates

“It's a fantastic book I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in energy.”--Bill Gates

Frederick W. Smith

“This is a profound, unique, and brilliantly written book about some of the most important issues of our times.” --(Frederick W. Smith, Chairman & CEO of the FedEx Corporation)

Fred Krupp

Written by America's preeminent energy expert, The Quest is a must read for anyone wanting to understand our energy world, how climate change became part of the energy equation - and how we can chart a path forward. (Fred Krupp, President of the Environmental Defense Fund)

Walter Isaacson

This fascinating saga is the definitive book on the most important of global issues, the quest for sustainable sources of energy. Dan Yergin, the preeminent energy expert of our times, weaves together security and environmental concerns to explain the system we have today and to analyze the sensible paths forward. This is one book you must read to understand the future of our economy and our way of life. (Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of The Aspen Institute)

Henry Kissinger

The Quest, by Daniel Yergin, one of the world's most experienced and influential authorities on global energy, may well become the definitive work on the science, history and economics of this most complex and important subject. This masterful and illuminating book on one of the most vital issues of our time, one that will powerfully influence international politics, economics and nations world-wide, should be essential reading for policy-makers everywhere. (Dr. Henry Kissinger)

Steve Coll

In the magisterial style of his earlier global narrative of energy politics, The Prize, Daniel Yergin has again delivered a sweeping, authoritative, account of the science, economics and geopolitics of energy. His writing, as ever, is clear and intelligent, and his subject could hardly be timelier. (Steve Coll, author of The Bin Ladens and Ghost Wars, president of New America Foundation)

Dr. Henry Kissinger

"The Quest, by Daniel Yergin, one of the world's most experienced and influential authorities on global energy, may well become the definitive work on the science, history and economics of this most complex and important subject. This masterful and illuminating book on one of the most vital issues of our time, one that will powerfully influence international politics, economics and nations world-wide, should be essential reading for policy-makers everywhere." --(Dr. Henry Kissinger)

Lawrence Summers

Dan Yergin's The Prize was a magisterial masterpiece. Now Yergin widens his lens. And takes in not just oil but all energy sources. Anyone who wants to understand the economics or the politics of the 21st century should read this book. (Lawrence Summers, University Professor, Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government)

Editorial Reviews

Daniel Yergin's 800-page book The Prize; The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction. In the nearly two decades since then, readers have eagerly anticipated his follow-up to this ongoing story. The Quest doesn't disappoint. This equally mammoth book describes the central role that energy plays in global politics, economic development, and climate change. In a story that extends from burgeoning Chinese cities to remote Saudi oil fields to closed Washington boardrooms, the man generally regarded as America's preeminent energy expert reveals the continuing struggle for the world's most precious resource. One early reader called The Quest "a profound, unique, and brilliantly written book about some of the most important issues of our times.

The romance with fossil fuels that the author chronicled in his 1993 Pulitzer-winning The Prize sours in this absorbing survey of the global energy industry and its environmental discontents. Yergin opens with an entertaining account of the last two decades of the oil-industry soap opera, recounting the chaos in the post-Soviet oil industry, the roller-coaster of oil price bubbles and collapses, and the impact of China's voracious appetite on energy markets. Enlivened with piquant historical background and profiles of major industry figures, Yergin's treatment is a canny analysis of terrain he understands well. (His debunking of peak oil anxieties is especially trenchant.) The book's second half examines the rise of global warming politics and the energy sources proposed as alternatives to carbon. Yergin's coverage is evenhanded, encyclopedic, and readable, but his mastery of these complex issues is less confident; his tour of renewables, from wind to cellulosic ethanol and algae, lacks depth and sometimes repeats boosterish claims, while his chapter on energy efficiency focuses more on green gadgetry than on lifestyle patterns. Yergin's perceptive, entertaining guide to the muddled quest for secure and sustainable energy lacks a systematic vision of how we might—or might not—get it. Photos. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Quest by Daniel Yergin, one of the world's most experienced and influential authorities on global energy, may well become the definitive work on the science, history, and economics of this most complex and important subject. This masterful and illuminating book on one of the most vital issues of our time, one that will powerfully influence international politics, economics, and nations worldwide, should be essential reading for policymakers everywhere."

Dr. Henry Kissinger

"In the magisterial style of his earlier global narrative of energy politics, The Prize, Daniel Yergin has again delivered a sweeping, authoritative account of the science, economics, and geopolitics of energy. His writing, as ever, is clear and intelligent, and his subject could hardly be timelier."

Steve Coll

"The Quest superbly captures the great questions of energy and security that face our nation in this risky world. Daniel Yergin identifies the key issues, demonstrates their urgency, and lays out the choices. He does so with such deep expertise and with such vivid narrative writing as to make this book both important and compelling. It can help us see our way to a safer and sounder energy future."

Senator Richard Lugar

"This fascinating saga is the definitive book on the most important of global issues, the quest for sustainable sources of energy. Dan Yergin, the prominent energy expert of our times, weaves together security and environmental concerns to explain the system we have toady and to analyze the sensible paths forward. This is one book you must read to understand the future of our economy and our way of life."

Walter Isaacson

The book then takes us on an exploration of the energy industry and its history, touching down in so many remote corners of the globe, filled with such a huge cast of sinister business magnates, visionary scientists, political scoundrels and con men that it sometimes reads like a novel.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

[An] important book… a valuable primer on the basic issues that define energy today. Yergin is careful in his analysis and never polemical… Despite that, The Quest makes it clear that energy policy is not on the right course anywhere in the world and that everyone—on the left and the right, in the developed and the developing world—need to rethink strongly held positions.

Fareed Zakaria

Mr. Yergin is back with a sequel to The Prize. It is called The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, and, if anything, it’s an even better book. It is searching, impartial and alarmingly up to date… The Quest will be necessary reading for C.E.O.’s, conservationists, lawmakers, generals, spies, tech geeks, thriller writers, ambitious terrorists and many others… The Quest is encyclopedic in its ambitions; it resists easy synopsis.” 

Dwight Garner

"The Quest superbly captures the great questions of energy and security that face our nation in this risky world. Daniel Yergin identifies the key issues, demonstrates their urgency, and lays out the choices. He does so with such deep expertise and with such vivid narrative writing as to make this book both important and compelling. It can help us see our way to a safer and sounder energy future."

Senator - Richard Lugar

"The Quest by Daniel Yergin, one of the world's most experienced and influential authorities on global energy, may well become the definitive work on the science, history, and economics of this most complex and important subject. This masterful and illuminating book on one of the most vital issues of our time, one that will powerfully influence international politics, economics, and nations worldwide, should be essential reading for policymakers everywhere."

Doctor - Henry Kissinger

The book then takes us on an exploration of the energy industry and its history, touching down in so many remote corners of the globe, filled with such a huge cast of sinister business magnates, visionary scientists, political scoundrels and con men that it sometimes reads like a novel.

Los Angeles Times

It is a cause for celebration that Yergin has returned with his perspective on a very different landscape… [I]t is impossible to think of a better introduction to the essentials of energy in the 21st century. In Yergin’s lucid, easy prose, the 800 pages flow freely… The Quest is… the definitive guide to how we got here.

The Financial Times

 “Mr Yergin’s previous book, The Prize, a history of the global oil industry, had the advantage of an epic tale and wondrous timing… The Quest, as its more open-ended title suggests, is a broader and more ambitious endeavour… The Quest is a masterly piece of work and, as a comprehensive guide to the world’s great energy needs and dilemmas, it will be hard to beat.” 

The Economist

[A] sprawling story richly textured with original material, quirky details and amusing anecdotes... The tale is generously sprinkled with facts debunking common misperceptions, and Mr. Yergin sagely analyzes how well the energy industry really works.

The Wall Street Journal

Twenty years after Yergin made news—and best sellers lists—with The Prize, he returns to reexamine the energy crisis. With corporate mergers and the scramble to control the resources of the former Soviet Union, oil is a bigger headache than ever, while nuclear, coal, and natural gas pose problems of their own. Then there's wind and solar energy. Given Yergin's fluency with energy issues, their vast importance, and the success of the last book, consider multiples. With a national tour.

Library Journal

Mr. Yergin is back with a sequel to The Prize. It is called The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, and, if anything, it’s an even better book. It is searching, impartial and alarmingly up to date… The Quest will be necessary reading for C.E.O.’s, conservationists, lawmakers, generals, spies, tech geeks, thriller writers, ambitious terrorists and many others… The Quest is encyclopedic in its ambitions; it resists easy synopsis.”— THE NEW YORK TIMES (Dwight Garner)

“A sprawling story richly textured with original material, quirky details and amusing anecdotes... The tale is generously sprinkled with facts debunking common misperceptions, and Mr. Yergin sagely analyzes how well the energy industry really works.”—THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“It is a cause for celebration that Yergin has returned with his perspective on a very different landscape… [I]t is impossible to think of a better introduction to the essentials of energy in the 21st century. In Yergin’s lucid, easy prose, the 800 pages flow freely… The Quest is… the definitive guide to how we got here.” —THE FINANCIAL TIMES

“An important book… a valuable primer on the basic issues that define energy today. Yergin is careful in his analysis and never polemical… Despite that, The Quest makes it clear that energy policy is not on the right course anywhere in the world and that everyone—on the left and the right, in the developed and the developing world—need to rethink strongly held positions.”—THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (Fareed Zakaria)

 “Mr Yergin’s previous book, The Prize, a history of the global oil industry, had the advantage of an epic tale and wondrous timing… The Quest, as its more open-ended title suggests, is a broader and more ambitious endeavour… The Quest is a masterly piece of work and, as a comprehensive guide to the world’s great energy needs and dilemmas, it will be hard to beat.”—THE ECONOMIST

“The Quest is a book—a tour de force, really—that evaluates the alternatives to oil so broadly and deeply that the physical tome could double as a doorstop… It is best read slowly, perhaps one chapter per day maximum, if the goal is to actually absorb the rich detail and sometimes complicated workings described by Yergin.”—USA TODAY

From the Publisher

The Quest is a book—a tour de force, really—that evaluates the alternatives to oil so broadly and deeply that the physical tome could double as a doorstop… It is best read slowly, perhaps one chapter per day maximum, if the goal is to actually absorb the rich detail and sometimes complicated workings described by Yergin.

USA TODAY

 “Mr Yergin’s previous book, The Prize, a history of the global oil industry, had the advantage of an epic tale and wondrous timing… The Quest, as its more open-ended title suggests, is a broader and more ambitious endeavour… The Quest is a masterly piece of work and, as a comprehensive guide to the world’s great energy needs and dilemmas, it will be hard to beat.” 

THE ECONOMIST

An important book… a valuable primer on the basic issues that define energy today. Yergin is careful in his analysis and never polemical… Despite that, The Quest makes it clear that energy policy is not on the right course anywhere in the world and that everyone—on the left and the right, in the developed and the developing world—need to rethink strongly held positions.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (Fareed Zakaria)

It is a cause for celebration that Yergin has returned with his perspective on a very different landscape… [I]t is impossible to think of a better introduction to the essentials of energy in the 21st century. In Yergin’s lucid, easy prose, the 800 pages flow freely… The Quest is… the definitive guide to how we got here.”

THE FINANCIAL TIMES

A sprawling story richly textured with original material, quirky details and amusing anecdotes... The tale is generously sprinkled with facts debunking common misperceptions, and Mr. Yergin sagely analyzes how well the energy industry really works.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Mr. Yergin is back with a sequel to The Prize. It is called The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, and, if anything, it’s an even better book. It is searching, impartial and alarmingly up to date… The Quest will be necessary reading for C.E.O.’s, conservationists, lawmakers, generals, spies, tech geeks, thriller writers, ambitious terrorists and many others… The Quest is encyclopedic in its ambitions; it resists easy synopsis.” 

THE NEW YORK TIMES (Dwight Garner)

The Quest is a book—a tour de force, really—that evaluates the alternatives to oil so broadly and deeply that the physical tome could double as a doorstop… It is best read slowly, perhaps one chapter per day maximum, if the goal is to actually absorb the rich detail and sometimes complicated workings described by Yergin.

USA Today

An important book… a valuable primer on the basic issues that define energy today. Yergin is careful in his analysis and never polemical… Despite that, The Quest makes it clear that energy policy is not on the right course anywhere in the world and that everyone—on the left and the right, in the developed and the developing world—need to rethink strongly held positions.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Mr. Yergin is back with a sequel to The Prize. It is called The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, and, if anything, it’s an even better book. It is searching, impartial and alarmingly up to date… The Quest will be necessary reading for C.E.O.’s, conservationists, lawmakers, generals, spies, tech geeks, thriller writers, ambitious terrorists and many others… The Quest is encyclopedic in its ambitions; it resists easy synopsis.” 

THE NEW YORK TIMES

An important book… a valuable primer on the basic issues that define energy today. Yergin is careful in his analysis and never polemical… Despite that, The Quest makes it clear that energy policy is not on the right course anywhere in the world and that everyone—on the left and the right, in the developed and the developing world—need to rethink strongly held positions.

The New York Times Book Review

Mr. Yergin is back with a sequel to The Prize. It is called The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, and, if anything, it's an even better book. It is searching, impartial and alarmingly up to date… The Quest will be necessary reading for C.E.O.'s, conservationists, lawmakers, generals, spies, tech geeks, thriller writers, ambitious terrorists and many others… The Quest is encyclopedic in its ambitions; it resists easy synopsis.” 

The New York Times

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