The West Texas Power Plant That Saved the World: Energy, Capitalism, and Climate Change

This is the book that shows that climate change and capitalism don't have to be at odds with each other. Bowman's expert weaving together of the history of energy, capitalism, and global alliances to move clean energy forward can help us face climate change and understand how to participate in the fight against it.Out of fear, I’ve kept my head in the sand about climate change; I am guilty of what Hayhoe, in the introduction to this book, calls “psychological distancing,” believing that my family and I will not be greatly impacted, but this book changed that. In an expert, engaging and non-partisan tone, The West Texas Power Plant That Saved the World offers a crucial and clear way to step out of dread so that we can understand what is really happening and why—and therefore do something about it.Bowman, in thoughtful and engrossing prose, has been able to make this complex subject understandable to me, despite my lack of knowledge about the energy economy and renewables. And he does so with expertise, humility and hope. He explains how much we are now at a major inflection point in the history of energy, the phenomenon that, with the first combustion engine two-hundred years ago, has allowed humankind to thrive but now may be the cause of its demise. Bowman plainly maps out the history and future of renewable energy and why a small power plant in Fort Stockton could be the harbinger of capitalism’s full embrace of clean energy. Katharine Hayhoe, the respected evangelical Christian climate scientist and director of Texas Tech University’s Climate Science Center, writes the intro to the book, adding to the book’s non-partisan credentials.Bowman’s story begins in his hometown of Galveston, where he watched storms along the seawall as a child, storms that will grow bigger and overwhelm the Texas coast as the ocean gets warmer. But this book, Bowman’s first, offers more than a forewarning of a future defined by weather catastrophes, it is a deft interweaving of many complicated threads: the history of energy and how we’ve made it work for us, why the financing of power plants matters, the international forces behind advances in energy technology, examples of human triumph over big environmental problems (the Great Stink in 1800s London) and what we can do so that our children can live in a world where the future still holds promise.I want my grandchildren to enjoy a world not dominated by the destruction of weather catastrophes and the burden of climate refugees. I want them to still have the coastlines and cool evenings, swimmable oceans, skiable mountains and enough water to drink. So please read this book, talk to your friends about it, and we can all advocate for positive steps forward.

The author’s passion on renewable is not based on knowledge or economy but based on a real childhood experience. The book is written in a interesting way.