Overview

Private money, public good, and the original fight for control of America's energy industry. Until the 1930s, financial interests dominated electrical power in the United States. That changed with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal which restructured the industry. The government expanded public ownership, famously through the Tennessee Valley Authority, and promoted a new kind of utility: the rural electric cooperative that brought light and power to millions in the countryside. Since then, public and cooperative utilities have persisted as an alternative to shareholder control. Democracy in Power traces the rise of publicly governed utilities in the twentieth-century electrification of America. Sandeep Vaheesan shows that the path to accountability in America's power sector was beset by bureaucratic challenges and fierce private resistance. Through a detailed and critical examination of this evolution, Vaheesan offers a blueprint for a publicly led and managed path to decarbonization. Democracy in Power is at once an essential history, a deeply relevant accounting of successes and failures, and a guide on how to avoid repeating past mistakes.

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9780226836386

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Reviews

“Democracy in Power is a timely, urgent contribution to understanding the how and why of today’s power system operations. Vaheesan reveals the rarely told history of the electricity system as a site of struggle for public and community control. Democratizing the power sector is a story of David versus Goliath, but Vaheesan shows it can be a winnable fight—and maybe our best bet at building a decarbonized, livable world.” -- Johanna Bozuwa | Climate and Community Project ""An impassioned and historically informed case for making good on the promise of public power in the quest for a future without fossil fuels. Vaheesan persuasively argues that decarbonization should at last fulfill the hopes and plans of New Dealers to democratize power in the United States, and organize the production of electricity along sustainable lines."" -- Eric Rauchway | author of ""Why the New Deal Matters"" “In Democracy in Power, Sandeep Vaheesan shows how the history of US electrification can point us toward a decarbonized future. Anyone interested in the Green New Deal, consumer cooperatives, or the democratic promise of public power will find his clearly written policy analysis to be informative, intriguing, and inspiring.” -- Richard R. John | author of ""Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications"" ""A major obstacle stands in the way of a just energy transition: corporate monopolies that run our energy system. This timely book reminds us, through political history and an assessment of the crisis of our democracy, that business interests also stood in the way of powering rural America, and that the debate over who should own energy is almost as old as energy itself. That debate is far from over—now is the moment to claim our power back!"" -- Sarahana Shrestha | New York State Assemblymember, District 103

"""An impassioned and historically informed case for making good on the promise of public power in the quest for a future without fossil fuels. Vaheesan persuasively argues that decarbonization should at last fulfill the hopes and plans of New Dealers to democratize power in the United States, and organize the production of electricity along sustainable lines."" -- Eric Rauchway | author of ""Why the New Deal Matters"""

"“Democracy in Power is a timely, urgent contribution to understanding the how and why of today’s power system operations. Vaheesan reveals the rarely told history of the electricity system as a site of struggle for public and community control. Democratizing the power sector is a story of David versus Goliath, but Vaheesan shows it can be a winnable fight—and maybe our best bet at building a decarbonized, livable world.” -- Johanna Bozuwa | Climate and Community Project ""An impassioned and historically informed case for making good on the promise of public power in the quest for a future without fossil fuels. Vaheesan persuasively argues that decarbonization should at last fulfill the hopes and plans of New Dealers to democratize power in the United States, and organize the production of electricity along sustainable lines."" -- Eric Rauchway | author of ""Why the New Deal Matters"" “In Democracy in Power, Sandeep Vaheesan shows how the history of US electrification can point us toward a decarbonized future. Anyone interested in the Green New Deal, consumer cooperatives, or the democratic promise of public power will find his clearly written policy analysis to be informative, intriguing, and inspiring.” -- Richard R. John | author of ""Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications"""

Author Information

Sandeep Vaheesan is legal director of the Open Markets Institute. His popular writing has appeared in the Washington Post, New Republic, Atlantic, and Dissent.

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