The Grid: Electrical Infrastructure for a New Era

by Gretchen Bakke

Meanwhile, we all also love what the act has made possible, if for different reasons. Lefty clean green energy types love it because at long last they have the right to buy power from less polluting, often more proximate sources, or even better, to make it themselves. The moneymen love it because they can finally make a profit off of the trade in electricity. The conservative right love it because it brings the free market, deregulation, and competition to what was a highly controlled noncompetitive industry riven through by the meddling tentacles of big government. Multinational corporations and multimillionaires love it because at long last they can invest in the energy sector with relatively little risk of loss. Building electrical generation, betting on electricity markets, making solar and wind mainstream technologies—it seems that whatever (social) way you look at it, the Energy Policy Act is a winning gig.