Superpower

May 1, 2019
A profile of an ambitious and persistent entrepreneur and a revealing look at the complex issues involved in the process of transitioning to renewable energy sources. Gold (The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World, 2014), a Gerald Loeb Award-winning reporter for the Wall Street Journal, chronicles the efforts of Michael Skelly, an infrastructure builder, to create an interstate transmission superhighway to bring direct high-voltage electrical power from the balkanized world of solar and wind farms to cities thousands of miles away. Unlike many present-day journalists, the author keeps himself mostly out of the story, with Skelly and his colleagues and adversaries front and center. Before getting into the story of Clean Line Energy, Skelly's company, Gold shows him working in the late-1990s for a tiny, aggressive company in the rapidly growing wind industry in Houston, developing wind farms. In 2007, when the firm had become a major wind power producer and was bought and remodeled by Goldman Sachs, Skelly quit the wind business and ran for Congress. As a Democrat in a heavily Republican district, he lost. "From despondency comes inspiration," according to Skelly, and it was then that he conceived of Clean Line Energy. The long process of trying to turn his concept into a reality is the subject of the second half of the book. The narrative is sometimes mazelike, full of sharply depicted players, corporate strategies, funding problems, struggles against long-existing utilities determined not to lose control of the grid, politicians and their personal preferences, misconceptions by lawmakers, the parochial interests of individual states, court cases, outdated statutes, and confused or fearful citizens. Ultimately, despite the complexity, Gold shows clearly the myriad daunting problems facing an entrepreneur in the renewable energy business. The author tells Skelly's story well, presenting him as an enterprising and resourceful trailblazer.

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June 1, 2019

Gold (energy reporter, Wall Street Journal; The Boom) profiles entrepreneur Michael Skelly throughout a long career in the energy sector, particularly wind-generated power. The central quest of the book is Skelly's vision to generate cheap green electricity on land in the Oklahoma panhandle with ideal conditions for wind turbines and solar cells to transport it along direct current power lines to grids east of the Mississippi River. Along the way, the author lays out a bit of the history of the development of the U.S. electric system, from highly localized power generation to state or regional grids that combine electrical power from multiple sources (fossil fuels, nuclear, solar, wind, and water). Both Skelly and Gold lament that the networking largely stopped at that level, and no national infrastructure effectively connects this conglomeration of regional providers. Surprisingly, Gold manages to keep the drama and tension high while relating what is essentially a tale of corporate deal-making, state politics, and industrial regulation. VERDICT Green energy enthusiasts will appreciate this account of how hard work, capitalist wiles, and negotiation are needed to turn a good idea into a reality.--Wade Lee-Smith, Univ. of Toledo Lib.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2019
Once seen as too expensive and impractical to replace fossil fuels, renewable-power sources such as wind and solar have dropped in price and expanded so much in the last decade that green-energy investors are now reaping significant profits on their way to fighting climate change. This latest inspiring work from Wall Street Journal senior energy reporter Gold (The Boom, 2014) follows the efforts of one such visionary investor, Michael Skelly, to upgrade the nation's power grid to take advantage of the renewables revolution. After selling off the second-largest wind farm in the U.S. for a cool $2 billion, Skelly has been putting his money into a venture dubbed Clean Line Energy that will potentially transmit green power produced in one state to every state that needs it. Gold tracks Skelly's trajectory from Houston power-company employee to congressional candidate to start-up entrepreneur, while describing the frustrations Skelly faced convincing entrenched politicians and utility owners to consider his ideas. An engrossing and informative look at the challenges involved in running the world on clean energy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)