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INTRODUCTION
APPROACH AND PURPOSE: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF
PROGRESSIVE CAPITALISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY
ELECTRICITY SECTOR
Political Economy
This book frames the challenge facing the energy sector as a turning point,
or critical juncture, in the third industrial revolution. The size of the task is
magnified by the urgent need to meet two pressing challenges: the develop-
ment and decarbonization of the global economy. The need for economic
development is driven by the need to expand access to energy for billions
of people who do not use any modern sources of power, and billions more
whose standard of living is below a level that will enable them to thrive in
a 21st-century economy. Although the link between energy consumption
and economic growth has weakened in the past couple of decades, it is still
significant, especially for nations at low and middle levels of development.
The need for decarbonization is driven by the severe damage that carbon
emissions (from the burning of fossil fuels) do to the environment.
The electricity sector is the focal point of this challenge for three rea-
sons. First, it is the single largest global source of greenhouse gases. Second,
electricity is the master energy source for household and commercial/
industrial power in the 21st-century economy. Third, decarbonization re-
quires electrification of the transportation and industrial sectors in order
ultimately to meet the challenge of climate change. In short, a massive
increase in affordable, low-carbon electricity production is necessary to
meet the twin challenges of development and decarbonization.
At a general level, industrialization, which has been synonymous with
economic development, requires a source of energy that drives the econ-
omy. Fossil fuels were the dominant source of power in the second
