High Tension

September 21, 2020
Riggs, a former official in the U.S. Department of Energy, debuts with an exhaustive look at President Franklin Roosevelt’s multipronged war against the private utility sector. Before 1933, Riggs notes, “nine holding companies... managed about three-quarters of the nation’s power.” The “vast share” of profits from electrifying the U.S. were pocketed by the companies’ owners rather than reinvested, according to Riggs, and rural farms were often left in the dark. During the 1932 presidential campaign, Roosevelt promised to unravel the holding companies, construct massive government dams to power the electrical grid, and push for rural electrification. The opposition was led by energy company CEO (and 1940 Republican presidential nominee) Wendell Willkie. Riggs dives deep into the legislative, judicial, and public opinion battles over Roosevelt’s energy initiatives, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, and argues that the hybrid public-private system that emerged in America was critical to the nation’s “economic global supremacy” during and after WWII. Thanks to Roosevelt, Riggs writes,“by the mid-1950s, almost all farms had electricity.” Though somewhat ponderous in its level of specificity, this authoritative account is a valuable resource for students of America’s energy policy.