A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations.

• Author: Hemphill, Thomas A.

A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations

Robert Bryce

New York: Hachette Book Group, 2020, 322 pp.

"Electricity has transformed humanity like no other form of energy," says Robert Bryce. A bold statement? Perhaps, yet he presents a convincing, fact-driven case in his latest book. He argues that electricity is the fuel of the 21st century and the largest source of global carbon dioxide (at 25 percent). Moreover, the global economy's leaders are found in countries where electricity is abundant and reliable. The electricity-generating industry, behind the oil and gas sector, is the world's second largest industry, with total global electricity sales of nearly $2.4 trillion.

The author of Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future (2010), Bryce was formerly a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Austin, Texas-based Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. While the author presents an interesting historical and journalistic background into the development of electricity and its infrastructure, this review will focus on the public policy aspects of his thesis.

In Part One ("Electricity Means Modernity"), Bryce notes that in 2000 the National Academy of Engineering chose "electrification" as the number one engineering achievement of the 20th century, with 13 of the top 20 achievements directly dependent on electrification--such as general electronic goods, computers, and air conditioning, as well as health technologies, laser and fiber optics, and household appliances. He cites several scholarly studies (including one by the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration) verifying that increased electricity use supports economic growth. Economic growth, in turn, improves living conditions for humanity, he argues, by making lighting "cheap, abundant, and reliable," thus fundamentally changing how people spend their days and nights. Additionally, electricity provides "instant power" that has transformed everything from manufacturing to urban transportation. Lastly, electricity gives humanity the ability to concentrate energy flows that have "shaped everything from the height of our cities to the productivity of our factories and microprocessors." Bryce also recognizes the New Deal legislative reforms that increased energy competition and expanded access into rural, heartland America, offering consumers (and farmers) an affordable electricity grid which contributed to building America's post-World War II economic superpower status.

In Part Two ("Why are Billions Still Stuck in the Dark? And What Are They Doing About It?"), Bryce illuminates the great disparity in electricity usage globally and why billions are trapped in "energy poverty." The author uses his refrigerator (running on 1,000 kilowatt hours of power) as a benchmark and creates a database of the world's countries. He then compares per capita electricity use...