This volume collects essays published in Public Utilities Fortnightly and OilPrice.com that begin in the days when the energy sector was a dull place, featuring slow growth and flat prices. Since then, the price of oil quadrupled, that of natural gas tripled and temperatures hit record highs. Big changes and more to come.
The first part of the book discusses how decarbonization and just plain growth will require new financial policies, why capital spending will have to grow much faster than anticipated, why the grid is no longer up to the job, and why not to make big bets on nuclear power. The second part of the book examines, in more detail, why the electricity market is at a turning point, why nuclear power will not make a big difference, short term, why technological change makes distributed resources a threat to the existing electric industry, and most important, why electricity providers will have increasing difficulty balancing environmental, financial and energy equity needs.
The authors view all issues from a financial perspective: in other words, no execution of any policy if it does not make financial sense. That is what make the book different.