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The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize–winning book, The Prize. In The Quest, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change and conflict, in a story that spans the energies on which our civilization has been built and the new energies that are competing to replace them.
The Quest tells the inside stories, tackles the tough questions, and reveals surprising insights about coal, electricity, and natural gas. He explains how climate change became a great issue and leads readers through the rebirth of renewable energies, energy independence, and the return of the electric car. Epic in scope and never more timely, The Quest vividly reveals the decisions, technologies, and individuals that are shaping our future.
The Quest tells the inside stories, tackles the tough questions, and reveals surprising insights about coal, electricity, and natural gas. He explains how climate change became a great issue and leads readers through the rebirth of renewable energies, energy independence, and the return of the electric car. Epic in scope and never more timely, The Quest vividly reveals the decisions, technologies, and individuals that are shaping our future.
864 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
923 people are currently reading
10331 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Yergin
28 books763 followersDaniel Yergin is the author of the new bestseller The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World which has been hailed as “a fascinating saga” about the “quest for sustainable resources of energy,” and “the book you must read to understand the future of our economy and our way of life,” not to mention “necessary reading for C.E.O.’s, conservationists, lawmakers, generals, spies, tech geeks, thriller writers. . . and many others.”
He received the Pulitzer Prize for The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil Money and Power, which became a number one New York Times best seller and has been translated into 17 languages.
Dr. Yergin is Vice Chairman of IHS and Founder of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and serves as CNBC’s Global Energy Expert.
Other books by Dr. Yergin include Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy. Dr. Yergin has also written for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, and many other publications.
Both The Prize and Commanding Heights were made into award winning documentaries. The eight-hour miniseries The Prize was aired on PBS, BBC, and NHK and viewed by 20 million viewers in the United States alone. The 6-hour documentary Commanding Heights that Dr. Yergin produced received three Emmy nominations, and the New York Festivals Gold World Medal for best documentary.
Dr. Yergin serves on the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and chaired the US Department of Energy’s Task Force on Strategic Energy Research and Development. He is a Trustee of the Brookings Institution, on the Board of the New America Foundation, and on the Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative.
Dr. Yergin holds a BA from Yale University and a PhD from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.
He received the Pulitzer Prize for The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil Money and Power, which became a number one New York Times best seller and has been translated into 17 languages.
Dr. Yergin is Vice Chairman of IHS and Founder of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and serves as CNBC’s Global Energy Expert.
Other books by Dr. Yergin include Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy. Dr. Yergin has also written for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, and many other publications.
Both The Prize and Commanding Heights were made into award winning documentaries. The eight-hour miniseries The Prize was aired on PBS, BBC, and NHK and viewed by 20 million viewers in the United States alone. The 6-hour documentary Commanding Heights that Dr. Yergin produced received three Emmy nominations, and the New York Festivals Gold World Medal for best documentary.
Dr. Yergin serves on the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and chaired the US Department of Energy’s Task Force on Strategic Energy Research and Development. He is a Trustee of the Brookings Institution, on the Board of the New America Foundation, and on the Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative.
Dr. Yergin holds a BA from Yale University and a PhD from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 444 reviews
December 6, 2011
This book is a very comprehensive treatment of all the issues related to energy. The book systematically describes the history, economics, development, transportation, security, and future of the main sources of energy; oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, electricity, renewable (wind, solar, hydroelectric, plant-based), and "conservation". The danger of greenhouse gas causing climate change is also described in detail. After reading this book, I finally understand why we keep hearing predictions that fossil fuels will be exhausted in 20-30 years, but production keeps increasing, year after year. The choices that countries make for supplying their energy needs are complicated, inter-connected, and never straight-forward. The multitude of stories and anecdotes help keep the narrative interesting.
June 28, 2016
As I understand it, the author was an academic who earned his Ph.D. in International Relations at Cambridge. Based on his academic work, he wrote a Pulitzer prize winning book titled 'The Prize' in 1990, which was about the global oil industry and its effect on global economics and politics. This book (The Quest) picks up where 'The Prize' left off. It also goes beyond oil to incorporate every other major and minor form of energy, both renewable and non-renewable. Tying all of that in to the evolution of global economics and politics during the last few decades is no easy task, but I can't imagine anyone could have done it better. The book is very informative, very educational, very comprehensive, and could serve as the text for a very interesting course on the topic.
So much has happened in the last few decades that makes for interesting subject matter. Wars in the middle east, the Arab spring, the advent of fracking, the rise of renewables, the electric car, etc. All of these events are discussed in the book in the context of the big picture that includes energy, politics, and economics. The first lesson I took away from this is that nothing happens in a vacuum. It is a bit scary how much the global economy is built on energy of one form or another.
For me, I can honestly say this book was dense and it took me a long time to complete. In true academic style, it is full of references and footnotes for each chapter. But it was not dry, and the author did make efforts to follow a narrative through each chapter so that it at least had some flow. I did find it enjoyable to read. I thought the author did a great job of telling the story of Edison and Tesla, DC vs. AC, and how those event shaped our present. Similarly, the author did well to incorporate many other histories that are less well-known, but equally relevant to the current state of various energy sources.
So much has happened in the last few decades that makes for interesting subject matter. Wars in the middle east, the Arab spring, the advent of fracking, the rise of renewables, the electric car, etc. All of these events are discussed in the book in the context of the big picture that includes energy, politics, and economics. The first lesson I took away from this is that nothing happens in a vacuum. It is a bit scary how much the global economy is built on energy of one form or another.
For me, I can honestly say this book was dense and it took me a long time to complete. In true academic style, it is full of references and footnotes for each chapter. But it was not dry, and the author did make efforts to follow a narrative through each chapter so that it at least had some flow. I did find it enjoyable to read. I thought the author did a great job of telling the story of Edison and Tesla, DC vs. AC, and how those event shaped our present. Similarly, the author did well to incorporate many other histories that are less well-known, but equally relevant to the current state of various energy sources.
October 5, 2017
الكتاب ضخم يقع في 800 صفحة في نسخته الانجليزية
و أكثر من 1100 صفحة في نسخته العربية
وحوالي 30 ساعة في النسخة الصوتية
الكتاب يشمل تاريخ صناعة الطاقة ومصادرها وكيف تشكل الاقتصاد العالمي حولها
كيف تتأثر سياسات الدول العظمى تجاه بعضها بسبب اسعار النفط أو طرق التصدير
كما تطرق إلى موضوع الطاقة المتجددة والصعوبات التي توجهها لتحل محل مصادر الطاقة الاحفورية (الفحم، النفط، والغاز الطبيعي)
يتميز دانييل ييرغن بأسلوب سردي بديع وسلس ومبسط. لذلك نجح في جذب شريحة كبيرة من القراء حتى من غير المختصين بالنفط والاقتصاد
أنا استمعت للنسخة الصوتية عبر تطبيق Audible
النسخة العربية بعنوان "السعي بحثاً عن الطاقة والأمن وإعادة تشكيل العالم الحديث" صادرة عن منتدى العلاقات العربية والدولية
و أكثر من 1100 صفحة في نسخته العربية
وحوالي 30 ساعة في النسخة الصوتية
الكتاب يشمل تاريخ صناعة الطاقة ومصادرها وكيف تشكل الاقتصاد العالمي حولها
كيف تتأثر سياسات الدول العظمى تجاه بعضها بسبب اسعار النفط أو طرق التصدير
كما تطرق إلى موضوع الطاقة المتجددة والصعوبات التي توجهها لتحل محل مصادر الطاقة الاحفورية (الفحم، النفط، والغاز الطبيعي)
يتميز دانييل ييرغن بأسلوب سردي بديع وسلس ومبسط. لذلك نجح في جذب شريحة كبيرة من القراء حتى من غير المختصين بالنفط والاقتصاد
أنا استمعت للنسخة الصوتية عبر تطبيق Audible
النسخة العربية بعنوان "السعي بحثاً عن الطاقة والأمن وإعادة تشكيل العالم الحديث" صادرة عن منتدى العلاقات العربية والدولية
April 6, 2017
Daniel Yergin’s Superb New Book: A Brilliant Survey of Energy Issues
Some two centuries ago a profound economic shift upset the traditional relations of East and West. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe and the United States began to overtake the great civilizations of China and India, the planet's wealthiest and most sophisticated societies throughout most of recorded history.
Now those two centuries of increasing imbalance are coming to an end, the result of the combined effects of five centuries of globalization beginning with Columbus; advances in transportation and communication in the 19th and 20th Centuries; the rapid spread of literacy, especially in the years following World War II; and major improvements in healthcare, which dramatically extended life expectancy across the globe. As the 21st Century continues to unfold, we may yet see today's wealthiest economies -- those of Europe and the United States -- fall behind the Asian giants, as they tap the potential of billions of increasingly healthy, well-educated citizens.
This tectonic shift in geopolitical relations lends great urgency to energy politics today. The rise of the East is as great a factor in the sourcing and distribution of energy resources as climate change. Both factors loom large in economic researcher Daniel Yergin's superb new book, The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World.
In 1991 Yergin published The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, which gained the #1 spot on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list, won the Pulitzer Prize, and established his firm, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, as the country's most sought-after voice on energy issues. Two decades later, The Quest broadens and updates the earlier book, relating the monumental changes in energy markets wrought by technological innovation, historic geopolitical shifts, and our changing views of energy and climate.
"Three fundamental questions shape this narrative," Yergin writes in the introduction. "Will enough energy be available to meet the needs of a growing world, and at what cost, and with what technologies? How can the security of the energy system on which the world depends be protected? What will be the impact of environmental concerns, including climate change, on the future of energy -- and how will energy development affect the environment?"
Approaching the topic more specifically, he asks, "Will resources be adequate not only to fuel today's $65 trillion global economy but also to fuel what might be a $130 trillion economy in just two decades? To put it simply, will the oil resources be sufficient to go from a world of almost a billion automobiles to a world of more than two billion cars?" Later the author emphasizes the significance of this question: "Despite growth in emerging markets, one out of every nine barrels of oil used in the world every day is burned as motor fuel on American roads."
The Quest is a big book, gushing with information. Yergin surveys virtually every significant aspect of energy in today's world. He touches on every energy source, every significant energy-related technological development of recent decades, and every major location of energy resources, and he briefly relates the history of each element. For a nonspecialist, The Quest is an immersion course in the nature and politics of energy. It's fascinating.
Ever the dispassionate analyst, Yergin treats highly controversial issues with a simple, fact-based approach. However, despite its ill treatment by much of the oil industry, he takes on the issue of global climate change in detail and with dead seriousness, leaving little doubt that the more rational leaders in the energy sector have no question about the potential world-changing effects of rising global temperatures.
But Daniel Yergin is no pessimist. Tackling the issue of "peak oil," for example, he says, "the world is clearly not running out of oil. Far from it. The estimates for the world's total stock of oil keep growing."
(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)
Some two centuries ago a profound economic shift upset the traditional relations of East and West. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe and the United States began to overtake the great civilizations of China and India, the planet's wealthiest and most sophisticated societies throughout most of recorded history.
Now those two centuries of increasing imbalance are coming to an end, the result of the combined effects of five centuries of globalization beginning with Columbus; advances in transportation and communication in the 19th and 20th Centuries; the rapid spread of literacy, especially in the years following World War II; and major improvements in healthcare, which dramatically extended life expectancy across the globe. As the 21st Century continues to unfold, we may yet see today's wealthiest economies -- those of Europe and the United States -- fall behind the Asian giants, as they tap the potential of billions of increasingly healthy, well-educated citizens.
This tectonic shift in geopolitical relations lends great urgency to energy politics today. The rise of the East is as great a factor in the sourcing and distribution of energy resources as climate change. Both factors loom large in economic researcher Daniel Yergin's superb new book, The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World.
In 1991 Yergin published The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, which gained the #1 spot on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list, won the Pulitzer Prize, and established his firm, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, as the country's most sought-after voice on energy issues. Two decades later, The Quest broadens and updates the earlier book, relating the monumental changes in energy markets wrought by technological innovation, historic geopolitical shifts, and our changing views of energy and climate.
"Three fundamental questions shape this narrative," Yergin writes in the introduction. "Will enough energy be available to meet the needs of a growing world, and at what cost, and with what technologies? How can the security of the energy system on which the world depends be protected? What will be the impact of environmental concerns, including climate change, on the future of energy -- and how will energy development affect the environment?"
Approaching the topic more specifically, he asks, "Will resources be adequate not only to fuel today's $65 trillion global economy but also to fuel what might be a $130 trillion economy in just two decades? To put it simply, will the oil resources be sufficient to go from a world of almost a billion automobiles to a world of more than two billion cars?" Later the author emphasizes the significance of this question: "Despite growth in emerging markets, one out of every nine barrels of oil used in the world every day is burned as motor fuel on American roads."
The Quest is a big book, gushing with information. Yergin surveys virtually every significant aspect of energy in today's world. He touches on every energy source, every significant energy-related technological development of recent decades, and every major location of energy resources, and he briefly relates the history of each element. For a nonspecialist, The Quest is an immersion course in the nature and politics of energy. It's fascinating.
Ever the dispassionate analyst, Yergin treats highly controversial issues with a simple, fact-based approach. However, despite its ill treatment by much of the oil industry, he takes on the issue of global climate change in detail and with dead seriousness, leaving little doubt that the more rational leaders in the energy sector have no question about the potential world-changing effects of rising global temperatures.
But Daniel Yergin is no pessimist. Tackling the issue of "peak oil," for example, he says, "the world is clearly not running out of oil. Far from it. The estimates for the world's total stock of oil keep growing."
(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)
November 25, 2018
A massive overarching summary of the history of everything energy related. Seriously, it covers an absolutely enormous amount. It was published in 2011, and renewables have changed so quickly since then that some parts are already badly out of date, and the Chinese obsession with coal has reduced slightly since it was published also (although it's largely been transferred to developing countries by Chinese companies instead).
Fascinating, although it covered a lot of ground of things I already knew, as it was clearly written for an audience that doesn't work on energy professionally.
Fascinating, although it covered a lot of ground of things I already knew, as it was clearly written for an audience that doesn't work on energy professionally.
January 21, 2018
Everything you could ever want to know about how energy affected the success and failure, and growth, in various countries and the globe at large (How did Russia become a superpower in energy/oil supply; how did that affect the power dynamics in other countries) as well as what are the consequences of different energy sources. Conflicts over how useful energy is v. how harmful its waste products are (think about pollution in Beijing-- the place that other countries outsource their jobs to in order to get around the pesky laws that require the use of filters that are better for health and environment. Yergin also examines our historic and current ideas about how sustainable each energy source is. Will we run out of fossil fuels? There is also much discussion of climate change.
May 20, 2023
"The Quest" is a book written by Daniel Yergin, an American author and energy expert. It was published in 2011 and explores the global energy landscape, focusing on the search for sustainable energy sources in the 21st century. The book delves into various aspects of the energy industry, including oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear power, renewable energy, and the geopolitical challenges associated with energy production and consumption. Yergin analyzes historical trends, technological advancements, and policy considerations to provide insights into the future of energy and its implications for the world.
GPT
GPT
April 4, 2020
2019.07.27–2019.08.02
Contents
Yergin D (2011) (29:26) Quest, The - Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
Introduction
Prologue
• “Not So Fast”
• Desert Storm
• A New Age of Globalization
• The Fading of Renewables?
• A Stable Middle East
• Containment
• New Horizons and the “Quiet Revolution”
Part I: The New World of Oil
01. Russia Returns
• “Things Are Bad with Bread”
• “Dear John—Help!”
• A New Russia: “No One’s at the Controls”
• Reconstructing the Oil Industry
• Lukoil and Surgut
• Yukos: The Sale of the Century
• Opening Up
• The Peripheries
• In the Heartland
• “A Great Economic Power”
• TNK-BP “50/50”
• Yukos
• “Strategic Resources”
• Oil and Russia’s Future
02. The Caspian Derby
• The New Great Game
• The Players
• “The Oil Kingdom”
• History on Display
• “All Roads Are There”
• “The Native Son”
• “The Deal of the Century”
• What Route for Early Oil?
• The Two-Track Strategy: “Offend No One”
• What Route for the Main Pipeline?
• “Now Is the Moment”
• “Our Major Goal”: Petroleum and the Nation-State
03. Across the Caspian
• Kazakhstan and the “Fourth Generation” of Oil
• Tengiz: “A Perfect Oil Field”
• The Pipeline Battle
• “The Main Thing Is That the Oil Comes Out”
• Kashagan
• One More Deal
• Turkmenistan and the Pipeline That Never Was
• TAP and CAOP
• Turmoil En Route
• The “Turkmenbashi”
• Hope and Experience
• “No Policy”
• Which Scenario?
• The End of the Road
04. “Supermajors”
• The “Asian Economic Miracle”
• Jakarta: “OPEC’s Economic Stars”
• “Essentially All Gone”: The Asian Financial Crisis
• The Jakarta Syndrome
• The Shock
• “Were He Alive Today . . .”
• The Merger That Wasn’t
• The Breakout: BP and Amoco
• Too Good to Be True
• “Easy Glum, Easy Glow”: Exxon and Mobil
• The Ghost of John D. Rockefeller
• The Alarms
• The French Reconnection: Total and Elf
• “We Had to Consolidate”: Chevron and Texaco
• The Last Ones Standing: Conoco and Phillips
• Standing Aside: Shell
05. The Petro-State
• Crisis for the Exporters
• The “Reversed Midas Touch”
• “We Couldn’t Lose Time”
• “It Is a Trap”
• The Coup
• Hugo Chávez
• La Apertura
• Painting the Picture
• The Oil War
• The Election: Not Even “The Remotest Chance”
• Chávez in Power
• The Recovery of Oil
06. Aggregate Disruption
• The Day That Changed Everything
• “Alo Presidente”—Venezuela
• “Call Fidel!”
• The General Strike
• Nigeria: “You’re a Petro-State”
• Ethnic Conflict
• Violence in the Delta
• “The Boys”
• Natural Disaster
07. War in Iraq
• Why the War?
• “Oil”
• “Beyond Nation Building”
• Not a Cakewalk
• The Oil Industry: “Dilapidated and Deplorable”
• “De-Baathification” and the Army’s Dissolution
• Rampant Looting
• Insurgency and Civil War
• The Industry Under Attack
• The Iraqi Disruption
• What Did You Learn?
08. The Demand Shock
• The Surge
• The Tightest Market
• Where Are the Petroleum Engineers?
• “Financialization”
• The Rise of Oil Trading
• From Eggs to Oil: The Paper Barrel
• Hedgers versus Speculators
• The “BRICs”: The Investment Opportunity of a Generation
• Trading Places
• Over the Counter
• The Belief System
• Does Price Actually Matter?
• “Going to Explode”
• “You Need Buyers”
• “Oil Dot-com”
• “It Needs to Stop”
• China in 2014
• Jeddah versus Bonga
• Break Point
• Changing the Car Fleet
• The Great Recession
• Sovereign Wealth
• The Peak
• “A Cold Wind from Nowhere”
09. China’s Rise
• “China Risk”
• “The Build-Out of China”
• Growth and Anxiety
• “Poor in Oil”
• Daqing: The “Great Celebration”
• “Iron Man” Wang
• Red Guards
• “Export as Much Oil as We Can”
• Workshop of the World
• The End of Self-Sufficiency
• The “Go Out” Strategy: Using Two Legs to Walk
• “Like Throwing a Match”
• “INOCs”
• Proportion
10. China in the Fast Lane
• Petro-Rivalry?
• “Responsible Stakeholders”
• The Fast Lane
• Going Out—on Wheels
• The Price of Success
• Power Surge
• Energy and Foreign Policy
• The Overlap of Interests
Part II: Securing the Supply
11. Is the World Running Out of Oil?
• Aboveground Risks
• Running Out Again—and Again
• The Fifth Time
• M. King Hubbert
• At the Peak
• Why Supplies Continue to Grow
• The Supergiant
• Discoveries versus Additions
• How Much Oil?
12. Unconventional
• Liquids with Gas
• Out of Sight of Land
• The North Sea and the Birth of Non-OPEC
• To the Frontier
• Deepwater Horizon
• “We Have a Situation”
• The Race to Contain
• “Fighting the Spill”
• The Government and the Company
• The Presalt: The Next Frontier
• From Fringe to Mainstream: Canadian Oil Sands
• Mega-Resource
• Aboveground Risks
• Mother Nature’s Pressure Cooker
• Tight Oil
13. The Security of Energy
• The Return of Energy Security
• The Dimensions
• The Limits of “Energy Independence”
• Strategic Significance
• Toward an International Regime
• Emergency Stocks
• Operating Systems
• Cyberattack: “A Bad New World”
• Bringing China and India “Inside”
• Securing the Supply Chain
14. Shifting Sands in the Persian Gulf
• “The Center of Gravity of World Oil”
• One Quarter of World Reserves
• The “Hinges” of the World Economy
• A Critical Node
• The Social Foundations
• Iraq’s Potential
• Seeking Hegemony
• “The Great Satan”
• Normalization?
• Renewed Militancy
• The Strait of Hormuz
• The Game Changer
• The Balance of Power
• Incentives and Sanctions
15. Gas on Water
• Cabot’s Cryogenics
• Killer Fog
• The “Fuel Non-Use Act”
• “The Crown Jewels”
16. The Natural Gas Revolution
• “Figure a Way”
• Breakthrough
• The “Shale Gale”
• Global Gas
• “Wounded by a Friend”
• The Emergence of Gazprom
• Ukraine versus Russia
• Diversification
• A Fuel for the Future
Part III: The Electric Age
17. Alternating Currents
• The Wizard of Menlo Park
• “The Subdivision of Light”
• “Battle of the Currents”
• The Meter Man
• “Natural Monopoly”: The Regulatory Bargain
• Elektropolis: Technology Transfer across the Seas
• “Aim for the Top”
• “I Have Erred”: Too Much Debt
• The New Deal: Completing the Electrification of America
• “Live Better Electrically”
18. The Nuclear Cycle
• The Admiral
• The Nuclear Navy
• The Reactor at Obninsk
• “Too Cheap to Meter”
• The Great Nuclear Bandwagon
• “The Buddha Is Smiling”: Proliferation
• Three Mile Island
• The Aftermath
• France’s Transformation
• “Black Stalks”
• The Exceptions
• What Fuel for the Future?
19. Breaking the Bargain
• Rate Shock
• Toward Market
• Enter the Merchant Generators
• California’s Strange Restructuring
• The Iron Curtain
• “It Was Madness”
• “Pirates” and “Plunder”: California at Sea
• “Crisis by Design”
• In the Aftermath
20. Fuel Choice
• Making Power
• Coal and Carbon
• Capturing the Carbon
• “Big Carbon”
• The Return of Nuclear
• A New Lease on Life
• “We Are Going to Restart”
• “Deep Geologic Storage”
• Proliferation
• Nuclear Renaissance
• Fukushima Daiichi
• Power and the Shale Gale
• But How Much?
Part IV: Climate and Carbon
21. Glacial Change
• “A Sentiment of Wonder”
• The New Energy Question
• The Rise of Carbon
• Why Not Too Hot or Too Cold?
• The Alpine “Hot Box”
• “Great Sheets of Ice”
• The Atmosphere: “As a Dam Built across a River”
• Arrhenius: The Great Benefit of a Warming Climate
• The Effect of Guy Callendar: Calculating Carbon
22. The Age of Discovery
• “A Large-Scale Geophysical Experiment”
• The Unexpected Impact of the International Geophysical Year
• “Okay, Let’s Go”: The Strategic Importance of Weather
• The Meeting at Woods Hole
• Keeling and His Curve
• “Global Cooling”: The Next Ice Age?
• Modeling the Climate
• “Boy, If This Is True”: The Rise of Climate Activism
• Revelle’s Exile
23. The Road to Rio
• The Hole in The Ozone: The Role Model
• James Hansen’s “Venus Syndrome”
• The Hot Summer of 1988 and the “White House Effect”
• Mrs. Thatcher
• The IPCC and the “Indispensable Man”
• Shoot-Out at Sundsvall
• Getting Ready for Rio
• To Go or Not to Go
• “A Major Harangue Down There”
• “The Diplomatic Free-for-All”
• What the Framework Convention Set in Motion
24. Making a Market
• The “Scribbler in Chief”
• “The War on Pollution”
• “Old Enough to Remember”
• The Acid Test of Acid Rain
• “Least-Cost Solutions”
• “The Grand Policy Experiment”
• “A Discernible Human Influence on Climate”
• Developed versus Developing Countries
• Rising Stakes—and Rising Clash
• Battles at Kyoto
• Europe versus the United States
• Developing versus Developed Countries
• “Cost, Cost, and Cost”
• How Realistic?
25. On the Global Agenda
• The “K” Word
• Twenty-One Questions
• The Foot-and-Mouth Panic
• Making a Market in Carbon
• The Power of Images
• Green Credentials
• The Nobel Prize
• Massachusetts versus EPA: The Supreme Court Steps In
26. In Search of Consensus
• Carrots and Sticks
• China: “Win-Win”
• India: “The Climate Agnostic”
• “Hopenhagen”
• “The Health of the Himalyas”
• “Extreme Weather”
• Making the Pledge at Cancún
• It’s Up to the EPA
• The Legacy of the Glaciers
Part V: New Energies
27. Rebirth of Renewables
• What Does “Renewables” Mean?
• Earth Day
• “You Will Learn”
• The “Moral Equivalent of War”
• “PURPA Machines”
• Good-Bye Sunshine
• “Production, Production, Production”
• The Epitaph?
• Japan: Staying Alive
• The “Bureaucrat-Novelist”
• Feeding into Germany
• From “Solar” to “Renewables”: Recovery and Rebranding
• The States as Laboratories
• Cleantech
• The “Three Denchi Brothers”
• Green Dragon
• “No Area’s More Ripe”
28. Science Experiment
• The Great Bubbling
• Not Merely “Good Science”
• The Prime Driver
• The Public Good
• Enter the Venture Capitalists
• Georges Doriot: Prophet of the “Start-Up Nation”
• Go West
• “Career Suicide”
• The $6 Trillion Opportunity
• “MIT Is Doing Energy”
• “The Only Way to Break Out”
• The Nature of the Experiment
29. Alchemy of Shining Light
• Ten Weeks That Shook the World
• Solar Cells
• “Thorough Investigation”
• The Race into Space
• Down to Earth
• The Research Program
• Sunshine Project
• The German Boom
• China Enters
• Thin Film
• The Solar Menu
• Concentrating the Sun
• Grid Parity?
• All the Roofs?
30. Mystery of Wind
• “The Free Benefit of Wind”
• The Electrification of Wind
• On Grandpa’s Knob with Palmer Putnam
• The Modern Industry
• “California Wind Rush”
• Sturdy Danes
• The Slump
• The Return of Wind
• A Mainstream Technology
• “On the Cusp”
• But How Big?
• The Challenge of “Intermittency”
• “Marinized”: The Offshore Frontier
31. The Fifth Fuel—Efficiency
• Real Efficiency Gains
• Jieneng Jianpai
• Industry: How Low the Fruit?
• “Aspirations”
• The “Game Changer”
• Which “20 Percent”?
• The Ribbon
32. Closing the Conservation Gap
• Patent Number 808897: “Manufactured Weather”
• Going Mainstream
• The Gadgiwatts
• Efficiency by Design
• Mottainai: “Too Precious to Waste”
• A Smarter Grid
Part VI: Road to the Future
33. Carbohydrate Man
• The Biofuel Vision
• The First Flex-Fuel Vehicle
• Birth of Gasohol
• The Making of an Ethanol Boom
• Brazil’s “Alcohol”
• Food versus Fuel
• A Promising Fungus
• “Switch—What?”
• The Forgotten Challenge
• “Tougher than People May Have Expected”
• Algae: The Little Refineries
• What Is Possible for Biofuels
34. Internal Fire
• Fuel for the Future?
• The Steam Engine
• Herr Otto
• The Race
• Electric or Gasoline?
• Nature’s Secret
• The New Fuel
• The Halcyon Days
• Getting Mobbed
• The Japanese Arrive
• The New Passion
• Remaking of Automobile
• What about Plan B?
• New Standards
35. The Great Electric Car Experiment
• The Race Resumes
• “The Valley of Smokes”
• City under Siege
• The Air Resources Board
• The Return of the EV
• The Road Map
• Electric Drive
• Taking a Leaf
• Charge It
• Where Will the Electricity Come From?
• “Thermal Runaway”?
• Asia First?
• The Hydrogen Highway
• What about Natural Gas?
• The Cars of the Future
• To the Future
Conclusion: “A Great Revolution”
Acknowledgements
Credits
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Contents
Yergin D (2011) (29:26) Quest, The - Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
Introduction
Prologue
• “Not So Fast”
• Desert Storm
• A New Age of Globalization
• The Fading of Renewables?
• A Stable Middle East
• Containment
• New Horizons and the “Quiet Revolution”
Part I: The New World of Oil
01. Russia Returns
• “Things Are Bad with Bread”
• “Dear John—Help!”
• A New Russia: “No One’s at the Controls”
• Reconstructing the Oil Industry
• Lukoil and Surgut
• Yukos: The Sale of the Century
• Opening Up
• The Peripheries
• In the Heartland
• “A Great Economic Power”
• TNK-BP “50/50”
• Yukos
• “Strategic Resources”
• Oil and Russia’s Future
02. The Caspian Derby
• The New Great Game
• The Players
• “The Oil Kingdom”
• History on Display
• “All Roads Are There”
• “The Native Son”
• “The Deal of the Century”
• What Route for Early Oil?
• The Two-Track Strategy: “Offend No One”
• What Route for the Main Pipeline?
• “Now Is the Moment”
• “Our Major Goal”: Petroleum and the Nation-State
03. Across the Caspian
• Kazakhstan and the “Fourth Generation” of Oil
• Tengiz: “A Perfect Oil Field”
• The Pipeline Battle
• “The Main Thing Is That the Oil Comes Out”
• Kashagan
• One More Deal
• Turkmenistan and the Pipeline That Never Was
• TAP and CAOP
• Turmoil En Route
• The “Turkmenbashi”
• Hope and Experience
• “No Policy”
• Which Scenario?
• The End of the Road
04. “Supermajors”
• The “Asian Economic Miracle”
• Jakarta: “OPEC’s Economic Stars”
• “Essentially All Gone”: The Asian Financial Crisis
• The Jakarta Syndrome
• The Shock
• “Were He Alive Today . . .”
• The Merger That Wasn’t
• The Breakout: BP and Amoco
• Too Good to Be True
• “Easy Glum, Easy Glow”: Exxon and Mobil
• The Ghost of John D. Rockefeller
• The Alarms
• The French Reconnection: Total and Elf
• “We Had to Consolidate”: Chevron and Texaco
• The Last Ones Standing: Conoco and Phillips
• Standing Aside: Shell
05. The Petro-State
• Crisis for the Exporters
• The “Reversed Midas Touch”
• “We Couldn’t Lose Time”
• “It Is a Trap”
• The Coup
• Hugo Chávez
• La Apertura
• Painting the Picture
• The Oil War
• The Election: Not Even “The Remotest Chance”
• Chávez in Power
• The Recovery of Oil
06. Aggregate Disruption
• The Day That Changed Everything
• “Alo Presidente”—Venezuela
• “Call Fidel!”
• The General Strike
• Nigeria: “You’re a Petro-State”
• Ethnic Conflict
• Violence in the Delta
• “The Boys”
• Natural Disaster
07. War in Iraq
• Why the War?
• “Oil”
• “Beyond Nation Building”
• Not a Cakewalk
• The Oil Industry: “Dilapidated and Deplorable”
• “De-Baathification” and the Army’s Dissolution
• Rampant Looting
• Insurgency and Civil War
• The Industry Under Attack
• The Iraqi Disruption
• What Did You Learn?
08. The Demand Shock
• The Surge
• The Tightest Market
• Where Are the Petroleum Engineers?
• “Financialization”
• The Rise of Oil Trading
• From Eggs to Oil: The Paper Barrel
• Hedgers versus Speculators
• The “BRICs”: The Investment Opportunity of a Generation
• Trading Places
• Over the Counter
• The Belief System
• Does Price Actually Matter?
• “Going to Explode”
• “You Need Buyers”
• “Oil Dot-com”
• “It Needs to Stop”
• China in 2014
• Jeddah versus Bonga
• Break Point
• Changing the Car Fleet
• The Great Recession
• Sovereign Wealth
• The Peak
• “A Cold Wind from Nowhere”
09. China’s Rise
• “China Risk”
• “The Build-Out of China”
• Growth and Anxiety
• “Poor in Oil”
• Daqing: The “Great Celebration”
• “Iron Man” Wang
• Red Guards
• “Export as Much Oil as We Can”
• Workshop of the World
• The End of Self-Sufficiency
• The “Go Out” Strategy: Using Two Legs to Walk
• “Like Throwing a Match”
• “INOCs”
• Proportion
10. China in the Fast Lane
• Petro-Rivalry?
• “Responsible Stakeholders”
• The Fast Lane
• Going Out—on Wheels
• The Price of Success
• Power Surge
• Energy and Foreign Policy
• The Overlap of Interests
Part II: Securing the Supply
11. Is the World Running Out of Oil?
• Aboveground Risks
• Running Out Again—and Again
• The Fifth Time
• M. King Hubbert
• At the Peak
• Why Supplies Continue to Grow
• The Supergiant
• Discoveries versus Additions
• How Much Oil?
12. Unconventional
• Liquids with Gas
• Out of Sight of Land
• The North Sea and the Birth of Non-OPEC
• To the Frontier
• Deepwater Horizon
• “We Have a Situation”
• The Race to Contain
• “Fighting the Spill”
• The Government and the Company
• The Presalt: The Next Frontier
• From Fringe to Mainstream: Canadian Oil Sands
• Mega-Resource
• Aboveground Risks
• Mother Nature’s Pressure Cooker
• Tight Oil
13. The Security of Energy
• The Return of Energy Security
• The Dimensions
• The Limits of “Energy Independence”
• Strategic Significance
• Toward an International Regime
• Emergency Stocks
• Operating Systems
• Cyberattack: “A Bad New World”
• Bringing China and India “Inside”
• Securing the Supply Chain
14. Shifting Sands in the Persian Gulf
• “The Center of Gravity of World Oil”
• One Quarter of World Reserves
• The “Hinges” of the World Economy
• A Critical Node
• The Social Foundations
• Iraq’s Potential
• Seeking Hegemony
• “The Great Satan”
• Normalization?
• Renewed Militancy
• The Strait of Hormuz
• The Game Changer
• The Balance of Power
• Incentives and Sanctions
15. Gas on Water
• Cabot’s Cryogenics
• Killer Fog
• The “Fuel Non-Use Act”
• “The Crown Jewels”
16. The Natural Gas Revolution
• “Figure a Way”
• Breakthrough
• The “Shale Gale”
• Global Gas
• “Wounded by a Friend”
• The Emergence of Gazprom
• Ukraine versus Russia
• Diversification
• A Fuel for the Future
Part III: The Electric Age
17. Alternating Currents
• The Wizard of Menlo Park
• “The Subdivision of Light”
• “Battle of the Currents”
• The Meter Man
• “Natural Monopoly”: The Regulatory Bargain
• Elektropolis: Technology Transfer across the Seas
• “Aim for the Top”
• “I Have Erred”: Too Much Debt
• The New Deal: Completing the Electrification of America
• “Live Better Electrically”
18. The Nuclear Cycle
• The Admiral
• The Nuclear Navy
• The Reactor at Obninsk
• “Too Cheap to Meter”
• The Great Nuclear Bandwagon
• “The Buddha Is Smiling”: Proliferation
• Three Mile Island
• The Aftermath
• France’s Transformation
• “Black Stalks”
• The Exceptions
• What Fuel for the Future?
19. Breaking the Bargain
• Rate Shock
• Toward Market
• Enter the Merchant Generators
• California’s Strange Restructuring
• The Iron Curtain
• “It Was Madness”
• “Pirates” and “Plunder”: California at Sea
• “Crisis by Design”
• In the Aftermath
20. Fuel Choice
• Making Power
• Coal and Carbon
• Capturing the Carbon
• “Big Carbon”
• The Return of Nuclear
• A New Lease on Life
• “We Are Going to Restart”
• “Deep Geologic Storage”
• Proliferation
• Nuclear Renaissance
• Fukushima Daiichi
• Power and the Shale Gale
• But How Much?
Part IV: Climate and Carbon
21. Glacial Change
• “A Sentiment of Wonder”
• The New Energy Question
• The Rise of Carbon
• Why Not Too Hot or Too Cold?
• The Alpine “Hot Box”
• “Great Sheets of Ice”
• The Atmosphere: “As a Dam Built across a River”
• Arrhenius: The Great Benefit of a Warming Climate
• The Effect of Guy Callendar: Calculating Carbon
22. The Age of Discovery
• “A Large-Scale Geophysical Experiment”
• The Unexpected Impact of the International Geophysical Year
• “Okay, Let’s Go”: The Strategic Importance of Weather
• The Meeting at Woods Hole
• Keeling and His Curve
• “Global Cooling”: The Next Ice Age?
• Modeling the Climate
• “Boy, If This Is True”: The Rise of Climate Activism
• Revelle’s Exile
23. The Road to Rio
• The Hole in The Ozone: The Role Model
• James Hansen’s “Venus Syndrome”
• The Hot Summer of 1988 and the “White House Effect”
• Mrs. Thatcher
• The IPCC and the “Indispensable Man”
• Shoot-Out at Sundsvall
• Getting Ready for Rio
• To Go or Not to Go
• “A Major Harangue Down There”
• “The Diplomatic Free-for-All”
• What the Framework Convention Set in Motion
24. Making a Market
• The “Scribbler in Chief”
• “The War on Pollution”
• “Old Enough to Remember”
• The Acid Test of Acid Rain
• “Least-Cost Solutions”
• “The Grand Policy Experiment”
• “A Discernible Human Influence on Climate”
• Developed versus Developing Countries
• Rising Stakes—and Rising Clash
• Battles at Kyoto
• Europe versus the United States
• Developing versus Developed Countries
• “Cost, Cost, and Cost”
• How Realistic?
25. On the Global Agenda
• The “K” Word
• Twenty-One Questions
• The Foot-and-Mouth Panic
• Making a Market in Carbon
• The Power of Images
• Green Credentials
• The Nobel Prize
• Massachusetts versus EPA: The Supreme Court Steps In
26. In Search of Consensus
• Carrots and Sticks
• China: “Win-Win”
• India: “The Climate Agnostic”
• “Hopenhagen”
• “The Health of the Himalyas”
• “Extreme Weather”
• Making the Pledge at Cancún
• It’s Up to the EPA
• The Legacy of the Glaciers
Part V: New Energies
27. Rebirth of Renewables
• What Does “Renewables” Mean?
• Earth Day
• “You Will Learn”
• The “Moral Equivalent of War”
• “PURPA Machines”
• Good-Bye Sunshine
• “Production, Production, Production”
• The Epitaph?
• Japan: Staying Alive
• The “Bureaucrat-Novelist”
• Feeding into Germany
• From “Solar” to “Renewables”: Recovery and Rebranding
• The States as Laboratories
• Cleantech
• The “Three Denchi Brothers”
• Green Dragon
• “No Area’s More Ripe”
28. Science Experiment
• The Great Bubbling
• Not Merely “Good Science”
• The Prime Driver
• The Public Good
• Enter the Venture Capitalists
• Georges Doriot: Prophet of the “Start-Up Nation”
• Go West
• “Career Suicide”
• The $6 Trillion Opportunity
• “MIT Is Doing Energy”
• “The Only Way to Break Out”
• The Nature of the Experiment
29. Alchemy of Shining Light
• Ten Weeks That Shook the World
• Solar Cells
• “Thorough Investigation”
• The Race into Space
• Down to Earth
• The Research Program
• Sunshine Project
• The German Boom
• China Enters
• Thin Film
• The Solar Menu
• Concentrating the Sun
• Grid Parity?
• All the Roofs?
30. Mystery of Wind
• “The Free Benefit of Wind”
• The Electrification of Wind
• On Grandpa’s Knob with Palmer Putnam
• The Modern Industry
• “California Wind Rush”
• Sturdy Danes
• The Slump
• The Return of Wind
• A Mainstream Technology
• “On the Cusp”
• But How Big?
• The Challenge of “Intermittency”
• “Marinized”: The Offshore Frontier
31. The Fifth Fuel—Efficiency
• Real Efficiency Gains
• Jieneng Jianpai
• Industry: How Low the Fruit?
• “Aspirations”
• The “Game Changer”
• Which “20 Percent”?
• The Ribbon
32. Closing the Conservation Gap
• Patent Number 808897: “Manufactured Weather”
• Going Mainstream
• The Gadgiwatts
• Efficiency by Design
• Mottainai: “Too Precious to Waste”
• A Smarter Grid
Part VI: Road to the Future
33. Carbohydrate Man
• The Biofuel Vision
• The First Flex-Fuel Vehicle
• Birth of Gasohol
• The Making of an Ethanol Boom
• Brazil’s “Alcohol”
• Food versus Fuel
• A Promising Fungus
• “Switch—What?”
• The Forgotten Challenge
• “Tougher than People May Have Expected”
• Algae: The Little Refineries
• What Is Possible for Biofuels
34. Internal Fire
• Fuel for the Future?
• The Steam Engine
• Herr Otto
• The Race
• Electric or Gasoline?
• Nature’s Secret
• The New Fuel
• The Halcyon Days
• Getting Mobbed
• The Japanese Arrive
• The New Passion
• Remaking of Automobile
• What about Plan B?
• New Standards
35. The Great Electric Car Experiment
• The Race Resumes
• “The Valley of Smokes”
• City under Siege
• The Air Resources Board
• The Return of the EV
• The Road Map
• Electric Drive
• Taking a Leaf
• Charge It
• Where Will the Electricity Come From?
• “Thermal Runaway”?
• Asia First?
• The Hydrogen Highway
• What about Natural Gas?
• The Cars of the Future
• To the Future
Conclusion: “A Great Revolution”
Acknowledgements
Credits
Notes
Bibliography
Index
December 4, 2019
This is THE authoritative book on energy - be it oil, gas, electricity, wind, solar... You name it. From the Caspian shores of Azerbaijan to the brownouts of 90s California, Yergin covers literally the entire globe and explains the entire timeline of energy consumption. This is a must-read for anyone who wants a comprehensive understanding of the most fundamental factor in the world economy - energy. I felt this book was much better than Yergin's more popular prequel, the Pulitzer winning "The Prize".
March 25, 2013
A bird's-eye survey of today's world of energy. Most of the discussion is centered on oil, which is Yergin's specialty. The world seems to have used up 1 trillion barrels of the stuff since the modern oil industry appeared in the late 19th century; there are 4 more to go. Much of the oil is hard to obtain: in Canada and Venezuela it is mixed with sand; off the shore of Brazil, it is under 2 kilometers of water and 5 kilometers of salt. Yet Yergin is dismissive of peak oil theorists: each decade, new technologies have appeared to both discover new oil fields and extract more oil from the already discovered ones, and this innovation does not seem to be ending. There is also natural gas, which is mostly used for heating and not transportation; it is liquefied at the well, transported in tankers, and converted back to gas on arrival; a field under the Persian Gulf between Qatar and Iran has a quadrillion cubic feet of the stuff. Improvements in hydraulic fracturing technologies have led to a boom in natural gas in the United States. Yergin thinks that on the whole, this technique is safe for the environment; others are not so sure. The 2008 spike of oil prices was caused by an increase of Chinese demand for oil; problems with supply in Nigeria (where insurgents attacked foreign-owned oil platforms); shortages of petroleum engineers, geologists, and materials necessary to build new oil platforms. Yergin gives "financialization" as another cause, but does not give a convincing explanation of how contracts to buy and sell oil at a given price in the future affect its price in the present.
The remaining parts of the book talk about nuclear power, wind power, electric and hybrid cars, and other energy-related topics. There is nothing there that is not in hundreds of other books and blogs. The leitmotif is that as the formerly poor countries are becoming middle-income, they want to consume more energy. The prime example is China; the Chinese have been buying more new automobiles than the Americans for a few years now. So the world's engineers, who are mostly concentrated in the rich countries, have to figure out how to run the civilization: manufacture chemicals, transport people to work and back, on less energy, as indeed they have been doing.
The remaining parts of the book talk about nuclear power, wind power, electric and hybrid cars, and other energy-related topics. There is nothing there that is not in hundreds of other books and blogs. The leitmotif is that as the formerly poor countries are becoming middle-income, they want to consume more energy. The prime example is China; the Chinese have been buying more new automobiles than the Americans for a few years now. So the world's engineers, who are mostly concentrated in the rich countries, have to figure out how to run the civilization: manufacture chemicals, transport people to work and back, on less energy, as indeed they have been doing.
November 30, 2016
I didn’t enjoy ‘The Quest’ quite as much as The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, but it is an equally well-written and compelling read. The earlier book has a simple chronological structure, whereas this one has a wider scope and darts about in time. As a result, the discussion of renewables appears slightly fragmented. Nonetheless, this is a very solid, thorough, and interesting account of recent and current energy issues. It provides a useful contextual synthesis for those studying climate change policy, as I happen to be. The chapters on climate change cover the ground quite thoroughly, thus depressingly. The only important point I felt should have been added is the huge gap between known fossil fuel reserves and the amount of them that can be burned without pushing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide above 400, 450, or even 550 ppm. Hell, it’s above 400 ppm right now (see http://co2now.org/). This issue of stranded assets that cannot be used without triggering catastrophic climate change is an incredibly difficult one.
A particular message throughout was the waxing and waning of technologies, policies, and political interest in energy and/or climate issues. Before any of the above become salient, they seem to go through phases of interest followed by abandonment. This is especially so in the case of renewable energy sources, it seems. I found the historical background for renewables and the analysis of oil markets from 1993-2011 the most appealing parts of the book. Yergin’s reporting appears impressively apolitical throughout, although if you have strong opinions on energy issues this may irritate in places. My only significant criticism, though, is Yergin’s spelling of ‘fracking’ as ‘fraccing’, which seems weird in the extreme. Is this an American thing? Or was it a typo replicated throughout?
A particular message throughout was the waxing and waning of technologies, policies, and political interest in energy and/or climate issues. Before any of the above become salient, they seem to go through phases of interest followed by abandonment. This is especially so in the case of renewable energy sources, it seems. I found the historical background for renewables and the analysis of oil markets from 1993-2011 the most appealing parts of the book. Yergin’s reporting appears impressively apolitical throughout, although if you have strong opinions on energy issues this may irritate in places. My only significant criticism, though, is Yergin’s spelling of ‘fracking’ as ‘fraccing’, which seems weird in the extreme. Is this an American thing? Or was it a typo replicated throughout?
February 14, 2025
This book picks up where The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power ended - from 1990 onwards.
It isn't a chronological history similar to the Prize but a mixture of discrete histories of various events and trends and summation of outlooks on different trends in the energy world.
It lacks characters such as Rockefeller and Roosevelt and the many other oil prospectors through the ages who truly descended onto parts unknown
Therefore, it isn't as engaging but such is the skill of the author that the book is still a very enjoyable read.
It covers the new development in oil industry since the start of the 1990s - the North Sea developments, new countries on the scene after the breakup of the USSR, the corporate mergers brought about by the Asian Financial Crisis, the rise and fall of Venezuelan oil, the emergence of Chinese NOCs, oil sands of Canada and the shale oil of the US and Qatari natural gas windfall.
It also covers the history and future outlook of other sources of energy - natural gas, nuclear, solar, wind power as well as the many trends in the energy milieu - climate change, the cap and trade system, energy efficiency movement, electric cars and many other topics.
What was a lot of fun was reading all the outlooks, targets and predictions on how the future of energy production and consumption would look like and seeing how well they performed a decade and a half later (the book was published around 2011)
My favourite of all these
On a global basis, estimates for new car sales in 2030 of EVs and PHEVs are 3 percent and 25 percent of total annual sales
Oh yeah, 3%!
Another enjoyable read. Looking forward to reading all the remaining Daniel Yergin books soon.
It isn't a chronological history similar to the Prize but a mixture of discrete histories of various events and trends and summation of outlooks on different trends in the energy world.
It lacks characters such as Rockefeller and Roosevelt and the many other oil prospectors through the ages who truly descended onto parts unknown
Therefore, it isn't as engaging but such is the skill of the author that the book is still a very enjoyable read.
It covers the new development in oil industry since the start of the 1990s - the North Sea developments, new countries on the scene after the breakup of the USSR, the corporate mergers brought about by the Asian Financial Crisis, the rise and fall of Venezuelan oil, the emergence of Chinese NOCs, oil sands of Canada and the shale oil of the US and Qatari natural gas windfall.
It also covers the history and future outlook of other sources of energy - natural gas, nuclear, solar, wind power as well as the many trends in the energy milieu - climate change, the cap and trade system, energy efficiency movement, electric cars and many other topics.
What was a lot of fun was reading all the outlooks, targets and predictions on how the future of energy production and consumption would look like and seeing how well they performed a decade and a half later (the book was published around 2011)
My favourite of all these
On a global basis, estimates for new car sales in 2030 of EVs and PHEVs are 3 percent and 25 percent of total annual sales
Oh yeah, 3%!
Another enjoyable read. Looking forward to reading all the remaining Daniel Yergin books soon.
December 22, 2014
The sequel of "The Prize", which focuses on the history of oil. The author deals in "The Quest" with the short period about oil that was left uncovered in the "The Prize", starting from the second Gulf War (invasion of Kuwait). In the meanwhile, oil has further dominated world politics: Chavez, Saddam Hussein, Nigeria and Iran. Next to that, the oil industry got involved in several mergers & acquisitions: Conocco Phillips, BP Amoco, Exxon Mobil and Total Elf to name a few.
Contrary to Fukuyama's illusion, China and USA have been working further on their goal to be energy independent. The latter seems to be harder than expected, although coal and nuclear energy benefit China, shale gas and shale oil favor USA, energy conservation both. There is still a long way to go, but the growing non-OPEC share leaves opportunities for geopolitical diversification.
What about Japan and Europe? Notwithstanding the Fukushima tragedy, the country has little more options than nuclear energy (taking into account a 80% import dependency on Middle Eastern oil). The same goes for Europe. It is OK to think green, but eliminating nuclear energy leaves no European option than to heavily rely on Arab oil. What if the US decides to retreat from that area? Europe lacks both the political courage and military means to protect its energy sources.
Obviously, Yergin also spends quite some time on green energy and energy conservation. Solar cells, electric cars, biofuel,... Whether or not humans caused the climate change, it is never wrong to use energy more efficiently and to diversify its energy sources. To save the planet and also to be more self-dependent from a geopolitical point of view. Any European politician could learn from this double lesson.
Contrary to Fukuyama's illusion, China and USA have been working further on their goal to be energy independent. The latter seems to be harder than expected, although coal and nuclear energy benefit China, shale gas and shale oil favor USA, energy conservation both. There is still a long way to go, but the growing non-OPEC share leaves opportunities for geopolitical diversification.
What about Japan and Europe? Notwithstanding the Fukushima tragedy, the country has little more options than nuclear energy (taking into account a 80% import dependency on Middle Eastern oil). The same goes for Europe. It is OK to think green, but eliminating nuclear energy leaves no European option than to heavily rely on Arab oil. What if the US decides to retreat from that area? Europe lacks both the political courage and military means to protect its energy sources.
Obviously, Yergin also spends quite some time on green energy and energy conservation. Solar cells, electric cars, biofuel,... Whether or not humans caused the climate change, it is never wrong to use energy more efficiently and to diversify its energy sources. To save the planet and also to be more self-dependent from a geopolitical point of view. Any European politician could learn from this double lesson.
December 23, 2012
Narrated by Robert Petkoff
29 hrs and 31 mins
Publisher's Summary
In this gripping account of the quest for the energy that our world needs, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Prize.
A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change. It is a story that spans the energies on which our civilization has been built and the new energies that are competing to replace them. From the jammed streets of Beijing to the shores of the Caspian Sea, from the conflicts in the Mideast to Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley, Yergin takes us into the decisions that are shaping our future. The drama of oil - the struggle for access, the battle for control, the insecurity of supply, the consequences of use, its impact on the global economy, and the geopolitics that dominate it - continues to profoundly affect our world.
Yergin tells the inside stories of the oil market and the surge in oil prices, the race to control the resources of the former Soviet empire, and the massive mergers that transformed the landscape of world oil. He tackles the toughest questions: Will we run out of oil? Are China and the United States destined to come into conflict over oil? How will a turbulent Middle East affect the future of oil supply?
29 hrs and 31 mins
Publisher's Summary
In this gripping account of the quest for the energy that our world needs, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Prize.
A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change. It is a story that spans the energies on which our civilization has been built and the new energies that are competing to replace them. From the jammed streets of Beijing to the shores of the Caspian Sea, from the conflicts in the Mideast to Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley, Yergin takes us into the decisions that are shaping our future. The drama of oil - the struggle for access, the battle for control, the insecurity of supply, the consequences of use, its impact on the global economy, and the geopolitics that dominate it - continues to profoundly affect our world.
Yergin tells the inside stories of the oil market and the surge in oil prices, the race to control the resources of the former Soviet empire, and the massive mergers that transformed the landscape of world oil. He tackles the toughest questions: Will we run out of oil? Are China and the United States destined to come into conflict over oil? How will a turbulent Middle East affect the future of oil supply?
September 15, 2013
As with The Prize, this is a difficult subject to be enthused about, but I left with what I wanted: a slew of interesting facts to use in my upcoming Masters presentation.
To be honest, the biggest environmental lesson I learned was that here is a man who is more aware than any of us about global warming and the energy crisis, and yet he still thinks its appropriate to have large print runs of his book and cut down trees everywhere and use energy to create all these objects, so... my brothers and sisters, the time to panic is not just yet! What a relief :-)
To be honest, the biggest environmental lesson I learned was that here is a man who is more aware than any of us about global warming and the energy crisis, and yet he still thinks its appropriate to have large print runs of his book and cut down trees everywhere and use energy to create all these objects, so... my brothers and sisters, the time to panic is not just yet! What a relief :-)
May 2, 2021
Well written book, in a very informative and understandable fashion. The Quest presents the complex story of energy in a historical context. The significance of major scientific discoveries in the field of energy is well explained. Most of these discoveries still have their influence today’s world. The relationship between the political, financial, economic, social and cultural aspects that shape the energy policy is very well explained. I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in researching and understanding the complexity of the energy system.
October 9, 2020
I have encountered parts of the book for some time but never got around to reading the whole thing. Then I realized he had a new book out that builds upon this so I decided to work through this. This is a book that provides a fairly comprehensive history of macro economic and macro political issues related to energy (taken broadly) from the end of the Soviet Union until around 2010. The focus is on the policy issues related to energy at the national and regional levels of analysis.
Think about that. A book like this rapidly morphs into a policy-oriented history of the world since 1990 with a focus on energy (oil, natural gas, LNG, nuclear, wind, etc.). So it is a focused history of the modern world from the standpoint of energy related products and services. Each chapter is about a different area of energy concern. Each area is immensely complex and, beyond the technical details of products and services, is filled with economic and political issues that have their own logics and yet interact importantly on a continuing basis.
This is an absolutely essential book for anyone who works in areas tied to energy. How do oil markets work? What in LNG? Which Persian Gulf states are which and who cares? What does China have to do with energy markets? I could go on, but that misses the point. There is a lot of material here. Every chapter in this book is well constructed and thoughtful and the different stories vary widely across the book. They are all complex but also represent the “tip of the iceberg” of the history and issues associated with each area covered in the book. Have an ipad or PC handy to look up the different lines of referral.
The book is fairly straightforward to read and follow, although it can be a bit of a slog, with not many areas where skimming will be rewarding. The book is well written and organized and there is not that much wasted text. This is a chore to work through and it can serve as a background reference - it is a lot to read at one time. Anyone interested in energy should try to work through it. It is well worth the effort.
Think about that. A book like this rapidly morphs into a policy-oriented history of the world since 1990 with a focus on energy (oil, natural gas, LNG, nuclear, wind, etc.). So it is a focused history of the modern world from the standpoint of energy related products and services. Each chapter is about a different area of energy concern. Each area is immensely complex and, beyond the technical details of products and services, is filled with economic and political issues that have their own logics and yet interact importantly on a continuing basis.
This is an absolutely essential book for anyone who works in areas tied to energy. How do oil markets work? What in LNG? Which Persian Gulf states are which and who cares? What does China have to do with energy markets? I could go on, but that misses the point. There is a lot of material here. Every chapter in this book is well constructed and thoughtful and the different stories vary widely across the book. They are all complex but also represent the “tip of the iceberg” of the history and issues associated with each area covered in the book. Have an ipad or PC handy to look up the different lines of referral.
The book is fairly straightforward to read and follow, although it can be a bit of a slog, with not many areas where skimming will be rewarding. The book is well written and organized and there is not that much wasted text. This is a chore to work through and it can serve as a background reference - it is a lot to read at one time. Anyone interested in energy should try to work through it. It is well worth the effort.
January 10, 2025
Didn't manage to get through the whole book before having to return it (very long!), but what I did read was great. Demonstrates how entwined with geopolitics the energy industry is.
*1: OIL*
Starts with a history of the Russian oil industry from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Three vertically integrated oil companies (Lukoil, Yukos, and Surgut) established in 1992 with what was intended to be a temporary state-owned holding company, Rosneft. There were also six 'mini-majors', which included Sibneft, with Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky took control of through a loans-for-shares deal (state needed short-term cash; unable to repay, so lenders got shares). Centre of production is the 'brown fields' of Western Siberia. Western companies had a competitive advantage in more technologically challenging areas such as Sakhalin. One company that managed to get a stake in W. Siberia was BP, with the creation of TNK-BP in 2003 [acquired by Rosneft in 2013].
Goes on to survey oil in the Caspian Sea region. When part of the USSR, the Caspian was thought to be depleted or too technologically challenging. Post-1991, new countries sought to develop their oil industries. For instance, Heydar Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, created the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), attracting international oil companies (e.g. BP, Amoco, Lukoil) to develop the offshore Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field (ACG). Pipieline politics about whether to go through Georgia or Russia, and whether to use ships through the Bosporus. Ultimately, chose to create the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) line which avoided the Bosporus, despite it being the most expensive and technologically challenging option. $4bn to build over 4yrs, first barrels arrived in Ceyhan (Turkey, Med.) in 2006. In Kazakhstan, the Tengiz oil field developed, with the first oil going into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's project in 2001. The Kashagan offshore field has been developed with the Chinese from 2013, after the book's publication [part of China's 'go-out' strategy: pipelines reduce shipping risks surrounding the South CHN Sea & Malacca]. Projects in Turkmenistan were hamstrung by political instability in Afghanistan, with the proposed pipelines through the country by Unocal (US company) terminated.
There was a period of consolidation in the oil industry which the author connects to the fall in oil prices after the 1997 economics crisis in Asia [lower costs by sharing resources?]. BP-Amoco (1997), Exxon-Mobil (1998), TotalFina-Elf (1999), Chevron-Texaco (2000), Conoco-Phillips (2001). Shell on the sidelines due to its dual structure (owned by 2 companies with 2 separate boards: Royal Dutch & Shell Transport) which made a stock-based merger virtually impossible.
Dangers of being a petro-state highlighted, with Venezuela presented as the archetype of the 'resource curse'. High oil revenues led to high spending. When oil prices dropped, the economy went down with them despite the population expecting spending to remain high. The phrase Dutch disease originates from the 1960s when the Netherlands' natural gas production strengthened its currency, making exports more expensive and imports cheaper. Cheaper imports weakened its domestic industries, worsening the economy. The solution is to create SWFs to invest 'excess' revenue that would overvalue the currency and diversify away from oil/natural resources.
Shifting focus to the Middle East, the importance of the US-Saudi relationship is emphasised (1945 Great Bitter Lake meeting...). Post-9/11 emphasis on 'energy independence' (many in the US believed that the all oil was imported from the Middle East [it's only 14%], despite US having huge domestic supply). Energy security has a long history: was an issue when Churchill powered the navy with oil (overseas) rather than coal (Wales) in 1911; IEA set up in 1974 to provide a Western counterbalance to OPEC by using stockpiles, e.g. the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
The dramatic rise in oil prices from 2004 to 2008 [supercycle...] are explained by 4 supply issues:
1. Chavez in Venezuela: general strike, 50% of the PDVSA fired, replaced by inexperienced workers
2. Violence in the Niger Delta: bunkering = stealing oil from pipelines and flow stations. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) aim to destroy oil infrastructure
3. 2005 Hurricane Katrina impact on the Gulf of Mexico
4. War in Iraq held back production
On the demand side, increase in emerging economies, especially China (maps onto 'World for Sale' commodity supercycle...). The idea of 'peak oil' encouraged speculators to drive up prices. However, the Saudis did not increase supply as they claimed they could not find buyers. Eventually, markets started to calibrate, with demand declining (people drove less and bought fuel-efficient cars rather than SUVs). Fall in oil prices after the 2008 crash.
Peak oil idea popularised by the geologist, M. King Hubbert. Was vindicated by the 1973 embargo, but not longer-term, as he did not consider technological changes which enabled more reserves to be tapped. For example, deepwater production starting in the 1990s, oil sands commercially viable in the late-1990s, shale oil.
US oil projects forbidden in Iran by Clinton (terrorism & nuclear threat: theocracy that believes an apocalypse is required to usher in a 'perfect world'...). The Strait of Hormuz is protected by the US Fifth Fleet based on the island of Bahrain [also protects the Red Sea: Operation Prosperity Guardian Dec. 2023-]. Qatar has the North Dome, the largest conventional natural gas field in the world. Turned into LNG, as far away from global markets. LNG useful when other power sources cut off, e.g. for JPN after 2011 Fukushima disaster. The 'natural gas revolution' was the tapping of shale gas in the 2000s (1% of supply in 2001; 25% in 2011) [CHN has very large reserves].
Old idea that electricity supply is a natural monpoly. Makes sense for the infrastructure. Thatcher privatisation in 1990, but prices regulated by Ofgem. Nuclear hindered in the US by 3 Mile Island (1979) and in Europe (with the exception of FRA) by Chernobyl (1986). 'Proliferation' is the risk of nuclear energy research being extended to create nuclear weapons (e.g. keep enriching uranium beyond the 3-5% needed for a reactor to the 80-90% required for a weapon).
*Other*
1. Warning signs of 9/11 included Arab flying students in the US who were only interested in learning how to take-off
*1: OIL*
Starts with a history of the Russian oil industry from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Three vertically integrated oil companies (Lukoil, Yukos, and Surgut) established in 1992 with what was intended to be a temporary state-owned holding company, Rosneft. There were also six 'mini-majors', which included Sibneft, with Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky took control of through a loans-for-shares deal (state needed short-term cash; unable to repay, so lenders got shares). Centre of production is the 'brown fields' of Western Siberia. Western companies had a competitive advantage in more technologically challenging areas such as Sakhalin. One company that managed to get a stake in W. Siberia was BP, with the creation of TNK-BP in 2003 [acquired by Rosneft in 2013].
Goes on to survey oil in the Caspian Sea region. When part of the USSR, the Caspian was thought to be depleted or too technologically challenging. Post-1991, new countries sought to develop their oil industries. For instance, Heydar Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, created the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), attracting international oil companies (e.g. BP, Amoco, Lukoil) to develop the offshore Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field (ACG). Pipieline politics about whether to go through Georgia or Russia, and whether to use ships through the Bosporus. Ultimately, chose to create the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) line which avoided the Bosporus, despite it being the most expensive and technologically challenging option. $4bn to build over 4yrs, first barrels arrived in Ceyhan (Turkey, Med.) in 2006. In Kazakhstan, the Tengiz oil field developed, with the first oil going into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's project in 2001. The Kashagan offshore field has been developed with the Chinese from 2013, after the book's publication [part of China's 'go-out' strategy: pipelines reduce shipping risks surrounding the South CHN Sea & Malacca]. Projects in Turkmenistan were hamstrung by political instability in Afghanistan, with the proposed pipelines through the country by Unocal (US company) terminated.
There was a period of consolidation in the oil industry which the author connects to the fall in oil prices after the 1997 economics crisis in Asia [lower costs by sharing resources?]. BP-Amoco (1997), Exxon-Mobil (1998), TotalFina-Elf (1999), Chevron-Texaco (2000), Conoco-Phillips (2001). Shell on the sidelines due to its dual structure (owned by 2 companies with 2 separate boards: Royal Dutch & Shell Transport) which made a stock-based merger virtually impossible.
Dangers of being a petro-state highlighted, with Venezuela presented as the archetype of the 'resource curse'. High oil revenues led to high spending. When oil prices dropped, the economy went down with them despite the population expecting spending to remain high. The phrase Dutch disease originates from the 1960s when the Netherlands' natural gas production strengthened its currency, making exports more expensive and imports cheaper. Cheaper imports weakened its domestic industries, worsening the economy. The solution is to create SWFs to invest 'excess' revenue that would overvalue the currency and diversify away from oil/natural resources.
Shifting focus to the Middle East, the importance of the US-Saudi relationship is emphasised (1945 Great Bitter Lake meeting...). Post-9/11 emphasis on 'energy independence' (many in the US believed that the all oil was imported from the Middle East [it's only 14%], despite US having huge domestic supply). Energy security has a long history: was an issue when Churchill powered the navy with oil (overseas) rather than coal (Wales) in 1911; IEA set up in 1974 to provide a Western counterbalance to OPEC by using stockpiles, e.g. the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
The dramatic rise in oil prices from 2004 to 2008 [supercycle...] are explained by 4 supply issues:
1. Chavez in Venezuela: general strike, 50% of the PDVSA fired, replaced by inexperienced workers
2. Violence in the Niger Delta: bunkering = stealing oil from pipelines and flow stations. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) aim to destroy oil infrastructure
3. 2005 Hurricane Katrina impact on the Gulf of Mexico
4. War in Iraq held back production
On the demand side, increase in emerging economies, especially China (maps onto 'World for Sale' commodity supercycle...). The idea of 'peak oil' encouraged speculators to drive up prices. However, the Saudis did not increase supply as they claimed they could not find buyers. Eventually, markets started to calibrate, with demand declining (people drove less and bought fuel-efficient cars rather than SUVs). Fall in oil prices after the 2008 crash.
Peak oil idea popularised by the geologist, M. King Hubbert. Was vindicated by the 1973 embargo, but not longer-term, as he did not consider technological changes which enabled more reserves to be tapped. For example, deepwater production starting in the 1990s, oil sands commercially viable in the late-1990s, shale oil.
US oil projects forbidden in Iran by Clinton (terrorism & nuclear threat: theocracy that believes an apocalypse is required to usher in a 'perfect world'...). The Strait of Hormuz is protected by the US Fifth Fleet based on the island of Bahrain [also protects the Red Sea: Operation Prosperity Guardian Dec. 2023-]. Qatar has the North Dome, the largest conventional natural gas field in the world. Turned into LNG, as far away from global markets. LNG useful when other power sources cut off, e.g. for JPN after 2011 Fukushima disaster. The 'natural gas revolution' was the tapping of shale gas in the 2000s (1% of supply in 2001; 25% in 2011) [CHN has very large reserves].
Old idea that electricity supply is a natural monpoly. Makes sense for the infrastructure. Thatcher privatisation in 1990, but prices regulated by Ofgem. Nuclear hindered in the US by 3 Mile Island (1979) and in Europe (with the exception of FRA) by Chernobyl (1986). 'Proliferation' is the risk of nuclear energy research being extended to create nuclear weapons (e.g. keep enriching uranium beyond the 3-5% needed for a reactor to the 80-90% required for a weapon).
*Other*
1. Warning signs of 9/11 included Arab flying students in the US who were only interested in learning how to take-off
January 2, 2021
Full and detailed description of people’s quest for energy that covered so many important aspects and really opened my eyes on energy problems: economics and politics around oil and gas, phenomenon of oil countries, connection between global politics and oil hunt, era of electricity, negative and positive sides of nuclear energy, and, of course, climate change. The science of climate change is explained in a very comprehensive way: greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, UV and infrared waves, climate modeling. The book also covered different types of sustainable energy (solar and wind), biofuels and competition between EVs and ICE cars that started not in XXI century, but back in times of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.
August 26, 2023
Uma leitura tanto penosa como útil. Para perceber o estado atual dos sistemas de energia é preciso perceber a sua evolução tecnológica e geopolítica. Daniel Yergin consegue contar toda a história energética mundial de uma "forma resumida", em 800 páginas. Pergunto-me se estaremos a perder este perfil denso da divulgação científica... Hoje em dia temos uma elevada variedade de obras bastante superficiais que devem certamente agraciar as massas, tendências e agendas que são cada vez mais exigentes. Temos autores como Vaclav Smil a largar o estilo denso, penoso e informativo por livros muito mais fáceis de digerir.
January 10, 2018
This book is vast- in the sense of both the timeline where the narrative is set and the breadth of topics covered. It really gives a feeling of what it takes to run the world. The author is a great storyteller. There were only one or two instances where I felt a little drag in the writing, which is actually great considering the size of the book.
There was so much to learn and some of the stories of the people and institutions involved in "the quest" are downright fascinating-the chapters on China's rise, the oil-politics in the Caspian sea, the development of nuclear power and the rise of the world automotive market to name a few.
Highly recommended!
There was so much to learn and some of the stories of the people and institutions involved in "the quest" are downright fascinating-the chapters on China's rise, the oil-politics in the Caspian sea, the development of nuclear power and the rise of the world automotive market to name a few.
Highly recommended!
April 21, 2017
A tour through the history of energy from oil, to natural gas, to nuclear, to climate change, and renewables. If you want an overview of global energy, how it works, and where it might be headed this is a good read. It is not sensational and does not demonize any one method of approaching energy but clearly lays out the pros and cons of each method and the history leading up to their development and integration.
May 17, 2025
An incredible follow up to The Prize, The Quest offers insights to international energy policy and developments in the post-WWII era. It offers a levelheaded yet optimistic look at the future of energy and world economics. I would highly recommend to any interested in engineering, science or economics.
January 26, 2025
A little old but very comprehensive and accessible. I listen to a few energy podcasts so I’m broadly familiar with the outlines of this but was good to have a single comprehensive overview of the whole thing. Would recommend
April 21, 2021
Fantastic book. The book provides everything you need to know about energy and how it shapes politics in the modern world.
November 26, 2023
Interesting overall but the first half is far too long and ought to be integrated with the rest for better chronoloigcal cohesion.
May 12, 2018
Very informative, comprehensive view of energy and the challenges facing various industries. A bit verbose at times, but still a good overview.
May 1, 2022
Fantastic but already out of date. It got depressing reading “by 2020” over and over, knowing none of it came to pass the way we hoped. But definitely valuable for its history. Definitely going to read his newer book!
Read
June 21, 2022Well I’m definitely not stupider
May 22, 2023
Yergin gives an incredibly detailed overview of the history of energy infrastructure, as well as the people behind it. As a friend once told me, “you cannot understand a subject until you understand it’s history”. Just so, we cannot understand the full scope and degree of the clean energy transition, and it’s geopolitical implications, until we understood what it took to get to where we are today.
One clear theme for me from Yergins overview is that energy, and energy prices, are like interest rates - they are the foundation that shapes the entire economy that runs on top of it. The littered remains of false starts like the first EVs by Ford, biofuels, and climate tech 1.0 all tell the story of energy prices that unexpectedly changed. Similarly, players and technologies behind the clean energy transition will also reshape how energy prices fluctuate and who controls them.
One clear theme for me from Yergins overview is that energy, and energy prices, are like interest rates - they are the foundation that shapes the entire economy that runs on top of it. The littered remains of false starts like the first EVs by Ford, biofuels, and climate tech 1.0 all tell the story of energy prices that unexpectedly changed. Similarly, players and technologies behind the clean energy transition will also reshape how energy prices fluctuate and who controls them.
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