“Renowned energy authority Daniel Yergin
continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The
Prize, in this gripping account of the quest for the energy the world needs --
and the power and riches that come with it. A master story teller as well as
one of the world's great experts, Yergin proves that energy is truly the engine
of global political and economic change, as well as central to the battle over
climate change. From the jammed streets
of Beijing, the shores of the Caspian Sea, and
the conflicts in the Mideast, to Capitol Hill and Silicon
Valley, Yergin takes us inside the decisions and choices that are
shaping our future. Without understanding the realities of energy examined in
The Quest, we may surrender our place at the helm of history. One
of our great narrative writers, Yergin tells the inside stories -- of the oil
market, the rise of the "petrostate", the race to control the
resources of the former Soviet empire, and the massive corporate mergers that
transformed the oil landscape. He shows how
the drama of oil—the struggle for access to it, the battle for control, the
insecurity of supply, the consequences
of its use, its impact on the global economy, and the geopolitics that dominate
it—will continue to shape our world. He
takes on the toughest questions -- will we run out of oil, and are China and the United States destined to conflict
over oil? Yergin also reveals the surprising and turbulent history of nuclear,
coal, electricity, and natural gas. He
investigates the "rebirth of renewables" -- -- biofuels and wind, as well as solar energy, which venture
capitalists are betting will be "the next big thing" for meeting the needs of a growing world economy. He makes
clear why understanding this greening landscape and its future role are
crucial. Yergin further brings climate change into unique perspective by
offering an original and unprecedented
history of how the issue went from concerning a handful of scientists,
terrified of a new Ice Age, to one of the overarching issues of our times. The
Quest presents an extraordinary range of characters and a panorama of dramatic
stories that illustrate the principles that will shape a robust and flexible
energy security system for the decades to come. It is an extraordinary achievement from an
author who is truly one of our nation's great resources. ”
