Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us [Hardcover]

First the bad news: over the next twenty years, the United States must cut 20 quadrillion BTUs from its annual consumption of fossil fuels, more than 25 percent of the energy currently being used. This is a matter of both economic and environmental necessity. The good news is that we have the technology to pull it off. But where should we start? What exactly needs to be done? How much will it cost? And won′t such a drastic reduction in energy use destroy the American way of life? In Before the Lights Go Out, science blogger and journalist Maggie Koerth–Baker presents a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which America produces, distributes, and consumes energy. She explains how our current systems developed, points out their strengths and weaknesses, and offers candid assessments of the time, the difficulty, and the expense involved in making radical changes to the energy systems that have shaped our lives for a hundred years. And the new world that results will be neither business–as–usual nor a hippie utopia. Drawing on more than two years of research and interviews with experts on everything from our electrical grid and electric cars to fracking and passive buildings, Koerth–Baker explains what we can do, what we can′t do, and why "the solution" is really a lot of solutions working together. This isn′t about planting a tree, buying a Prius, and proving that you′re a good person. Economic and social incentives got us a country full of gas–guzzling cars, long commutes, inefficient houses, and coal–fired power plants in the middle of nowhere, and economics and incentives will build our new world. Ultimately, change is inevitable. If we don′t control it, it will control us. Koerth–Baker argues that we′re not going to solve the energy problem by convincing everyone to live like it′s 1900—nobody wants to do that. Rather than reverting to the past, we will be building a future where we get energy from new places and use it in new ways and do more with less. But for all the new technology, we′ll still need coal–fired, nuclear, and natural gas–burning power plants—and we′ll still be pumping gasoline into our (far more fuel–efficient) cars for many decades to come. She also looks at new battery technology, smart grids, decentralized generation, clean coal, and carbon sequestration—buzzwords now, but they′ll be a part of our everyday life soon. Yes, solving the energy problem is more urgent than ever before. Yes, we have the technology to do that—and the results may surprise you. Before the Lights Go Out reveals what that will look like.

What you need to know now about America′s energy future We all know America has an energy problem—even if we can′t all agree on what, specifically, the problem is. Rising costs, changing climate, peak oil, foreign oil, public safety—the issues are complicated, the solutions even more so. In Before the Lights Go Out , Maggie Koerth–Baker finally makes some sense out of the competing agendas and reveals the practical, multifaceted plan that will save America′s future. "With spark and brilliance, Maggie Koerth–Baker reveals the thrumming, secretive inner workings of the U.S. energy grid. The wizard behind the curtain turns out to be a bunch of guys in light blue dress shirts, drinking RC Cola and sweating out a surplus that′s threatening to crash the western seaboard. Using the raw resources of carefully gathered facts and years of experience, Koerth–Baker builds a narrative that flows and illuminates like the river of electrons that I now understand to be electricity. In her capable and stylish telling, energy isn′t just policy and data; it′s people and history, happenstance and compromise. It′s a fine, cracking read." — Mary Roach , author of Stiff and Packing for Mars "Maggie Koerth–Baker is one of the most innovative science writers at work today. Rather than settling for cheap flash, she burrows deep into many of the biggest mysteries in science and technology and comes out with wonderfully clear explanations. In Before the Lights Go Out , she digs into perhaps the most puzzling—and urgent—stories of our time: Where are we going to get our energy from in future decades? Her investigations take us from the early days of firewood and coal to the cutting edge of smart grids and carbon capture, and leave us well–equipped to take on this great challenge of our civilization." — Carl Zimmer , contributing editor, Discover ; author of Science Ink "None of this stuff is, in and of itself, sustainable. Not coal, not nukes, not solar, not wind. But some combination of various systems, various compromises and improvements and treaties between mutual belligerents, taken together, hold out the promise of a world where we and our descendants continue to enjoy comfort and prosperity. This isn′t a book about turning down the thermostat in the winter and putting on a sweater: it′s a book about making houses that are better, that warm the rooms where people are and keep the heat in, and, in the process, cost us all less, reduce the pressure to secure oil through military adventurism, and begin to curb our atmospheric CO2 addiction. This is an optimistic book. Not a book that says it′ll all come out all right, but rather a book that says that it might come out all right. It′s a book we need to read." — Cory Doctorow , author of Little Brother