The big dirties -- Electricity, power plants, and the environment -- First steps -- Minor adjustments, major controversy -- The lost decade -- Major adjustments -- Cautious implementation and vigorous enforcement -- Retrenchment -- The Obama administration takes a new approach -- The war on fossil fuels -- The transformation of the electric power industry -- The Trump effect -- Toward a sustainable energy future.
Summary:
Pollution, Politics, and Power tells the story of the remarkable transformation of the electric power industry that has taken place over the last four decades. Electric power companies have morphed from polluting, regulated monopolies into cleaner deregulated generators, transmitters, and distributors of electrical power in a far more competitive economic environment. Companies are investing heavily in natural gas and utility-scale renewable resources, and they have quit building new coal-fired plants. The distribution side of the business has become a facilitator of end-use efficiency and a purchaser of excess electricity produced by rooftop solar panels and backyard wind turbines. Meanwhile, the once-powerful coal industry teeters on the edge of bankruptcy as electric power companies throughout the country shutter coal-fired power plants and reduced demand for coal causes mines to close throughout Appalachia and communities throughout the region suffer from high unemployment, reduced resources, and a spiraling opioid epidemic. Environmental regulation has played a major role in this transformation. The Environmental Protection Agency and its counterparts in the states have insisted that new power plants install the best available technology to control air pollution and that existing power plants limit their emissions and solid wastes. Market forces resulting from increased competition, increased supplies of natural gas and inexpensive wind and solar power have also played prominent roles. And the Trump administration's efforts to revive the coal industry by scaling back environmental controls and reregulating electricity prices have had little effect on the industry's decline.-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.