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Brokers of Power: The Financialization of the US Electricity System
Author(s): Conor Harrison (Author)
- Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
- Publication Date: Aug. 11 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 296 pages
- ISBN-10: 1517919010
- ISBN-13: 9781517919016
Book Description
A detailed look at the financial interests impacting the energy transition
The twenty-first century has seen major transformations in the US electricity sector?but while the use of coal power wanes and the need for renewable energy becomes more urgent, financial actors maintain a complicating influence on the trajectory of energy transition. Brokers of Power identifies changing patterns of investment intertwined with the shift from state-regulated electricity monopolies to a market-driven price model and the embrace of wind and solar hookups to the grid.
Drawing from case studies such as catastrophic Winter Storm Uri that hit Texas in 2021 and in-depth interviews with people working in the electricity and financial sectors, Conor Harrison reveals how the various entanglements of private equity, investment banking, and financial modeling are shaping the future and raising the costs of this vital infrastructure. Today?s financial firms, he shows, are engaged in the electricity industry beyond matters of investment: they own electricity generation infrastructure, trade electricity on markets, capture federal renewable energy tax credits, and advise on electricity firm operating strategy.
Looking beyond technology and policy, Harrison interrogates what it means to have powerful financial institutions as the primary agents of change in the fraught and ongoing energy transition. A timely and invaluable contribution to the fields of geography, environmental studies, and the energy social sciences, Brokers of Power is a cautionary account delving into the complexities surrounding the push for decarbonization.
Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.
Editorial Reviews
Review
?It?s hard to think of two more important industries than energy and finance. Not much happens in the world without the supply of both, so it?s surprising that little attention gets paid to the nexus of the two: energy finance. Showing that Wall Street, not Washington, ultimately dictates the pace of America?s energy transition, Conor Harrison busts open the black box.? ?Brett Christophers, author of The Price Is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won?t Save the Planet
“In Brokers of Power, Conor Harrison brilliantly disentangles the complex web of financial and industrial interests underpinning the modern US electricity sector. Harrison?s analysis, spanning from coal securitization to solar financing and investor-owned utilities to private equity, is conceptually sophisticated yet broadly accessible. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand why the electricity system looks like it does?and the forces that must be reshaped to accomplish a just and rapid energy transition.” ?Shelley Welton, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
About the Author
Conor Harrison is associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of South Carolina.
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