Forgotten Roots - Electric Power, Profits, Democracy and A Profession

FORGOTTEN ROOTS Electric Power, Profits, Democracy and a Profession This book is directly relevant to today's national energy problems. What can be learned from those who built the world's best power system that the National Academy of Engineering called, "the greatest technical achievement of the 20th century"? Want to know what they said? Can good technical policies be established in a democracy where "profits now" is the driving force? Want to understand the problem? A review of what happened in the electric power industry, the life blood of our national economic system, sheds much light. This book explores the evolution and interrelation of the electric power industry, government policy, our universities, and the electric power engineering profession that chartered its course. Early procedures are compared with present procedures that have produced skyrocketing prices and blackouts. It discusses possible procedures for solving our problems in the future. Jack Casazza, an internationally honored engineer, tells the story based on personal associations with many of those who were involved. In making a key award to him, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers stated that American consumers owe him more than any other man for the development of the electric power grid.