Keeping the lights On : Nuclear, renewables and climate change, sixth report of session 2005-06, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence

This is such a timely book. Combining extraordinary historical insight with the sharpest analysis of where we are now, Walt Patterson carves out the most applied and practical of 'road maps' as to where we need to go if we are to deliver a genuinely sustainable electricity system for the future. As we go into a period of considerable turbulence, primarily because of the impacts of climate change, Keeping The Lights On will undoubtedly be seen as a very well informed Guidebook. JONATHON PORRITT CBE, CHAIR, UK SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION A very important and timely book. Walt Patterson persuasively challenges traditional assumptions about how we think of energy and electricity, and presents an exciting vision of an innovative and sustainable future. NICK MABEY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, E3G (THIRD GENERATION ENVIRONMENTALISM), FORMER SENIOR ADVISER IN THE UK PRIME MINISTERS STRATEGY UNIT Walt has got this exactly right. It should be compulsive reading, if not compulsory reading, for all politicians and other players that determine or have a role to play in energy policy and, more importantly, in tackling climate change. Knowing what we know now, you would not implement such a wasteful and polluting electricity system as centralized power generation. As Walt has indicated, we do have to overcome the grid mindset of those who should know better. ALLAN JONES MBE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LONDON CLIMATE CHANGE AGENCY What can I say? Clearly thought out, simply written, and straight to the heart of the major issues in energy today. I cant think of anyone else who could bring together the technology, the economics, and the basic human relationship with energy that Walt has here. This is really great stuff. RONAN PALMER, CHIEF ECONOMIST, UK ENVIRONMENT AGENCY Fashions come and fashions go in the energy world. Security of supply, climate change and market liberalization have all vied for our attention. Its good to have one voice thats stayed constant over thirty years of turbulence and change. Keeping The Lights On distils Walt Pattersons thinking over the last three decades. As ever, he provokes us to re-examine our own thinking about energy policy. Essential reading as we face up to new challenges. PROFESSOR JIM SKEA OBE, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, UK ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE 'Even more important now than when first released.' Energy News In Keeping The Lights On, Walt Patterson starts from a simple premise: that we are making a mess of energy, and this is endangering the planet. Using accessible, everyday language Patterson describes how we could do much better, outlining a different way to think about energy, what we want from it and how we get it. Drawing on over 35 years of work from one of the leading voices in the field, Keeping The Lights On explains how we could go about improving energy security and services while reducing costs and vulnerability, globally and rapidly. The book discusses the timely and heated debates surrounding energy and power, and emphasizes that electricity is about infrastructure; we have to stop treating it as a commodity. The result is a comprehensive introduction to the most important issues, providing the reader with innovative and expert ideas and solutions. Published with Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Power sector reforms across Latin America in the 1990s based on privatization, liberalization and market forces were largely unavoidable. This book argues that while there is no turning back from this process, many reforms may not prove sustainable without further efforts to build a stronger institutional platform to support them. The analytical framework presented in Keeping the Lights On: Power Sector Reform in Latin America establishes a baseline for the sustainability of reforms and identifies additional areas for exploration, analysis and inquiry. This analysis is critical to setting the stage for the next generation of reforms -- or mid-course corrections -- that will be necessary to enhance the sustainability of changes in progress. The book includes case studies of power sector reforms in Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala, as well as a timely section on the security of supply.

Most people don’t realize that during the war in Europe in the 1940s, it took an average of six support soldiers to make the work of four combat soldiers possible. Most of what’s available in the literature tends toward combat narratives, and yet the support soldiers had complex and unique experiences as well. This book is based on personal correspondence, and it is primarily a memoir that creates a picture of the day-to-day realities of an individual soldier told in his own words [as much as he could tell under the wartime rules of censorship, that is] as well as giving insight into what it was actually like to be an American soldier during WWII. It explores the experiences of a non-combat Army utilities engineer working in a combat zone during the war in Europe and takes the protagonist from basic training through various overseas assignments—in this case to England, North Africa, and Italy as a support soldier under Eisenhower and his successors at Allied Force Headquarters. It also includes some reflections about his life after returning to Oregon when the war was over. The soldier involved is Captain Harold Alec Daniels [OSU, Class of 1939, ROTC] and most of the letters were written to his wife, Mary Daniels [attended U of O in the late 1930s]. They are the author's parents, and she inherited the letter collection, photos, and all other primary source materials after her mother’s death in 2006.

In Keeping the Lights On at America's Nuclear Power Plants, Jeremy Carl and David Fedor discuss the decline of American nuclear power in light of major economic, technological and political challenges. They show how high costs, low public support, and popular clean energy trends threaten America's near- and long-term nuclear viability. American nuclear power plants are closing at a historically unprecedented pace, and there's little evidence of public or political will to stop the bleeding. Recognizing the nuclear industry's flaws, the authors argue that nuclear energy is widely misunderstood. They discuss the nuclear industry's failure to capture the public's attention and imagination, and survey the new national conversation about America's renewable energy future -- a conversation that does not include nuclear. For all these challenges, the authors argue that permanently opting out of the nuclear enterprise would be a mistake. Making the case for continued nuclear investment, they show how "keeping the lights on" at America's nuclear plants can bolster American technology leadership, security, and commitment to curbing carbon emissions. They offer a menu of policy options designed to spur meaningful action at state and federal levels, to change the industry's status quo, and to reintroduce nuclear to America's energy conversation.

Inspirational guide to living life fully by examining the influence of other people, personal values, and plans for the future.