Publisher's Synopsis
Electricity is the largest and the most controversial of the Government's privatization ventures. This carefully researched book explores the contradictions inherent in the doctrine underlying privatization that free market forces prevail in an industry that has special social, environmental and strategic responsibilities, not least in the areas of nuclear power, acid rain, and electricity supplies for the poor.;The authors, three writers and researchers on energy issues, reveal the political and economical tensions induced by these contradictions and argue that the research will be a liberalization more in image than reality. The poverty of energy policy will mean that sustainable, environmentally-friendly generation alternatives will be neglected, the nuclear programme will be in disarrary, and the National Power/PowerGen duopoly will not produce the competitive efficiencies envisaged by the original privatization scheme.;The book concludes with a proposal for a restructured electricity supply industry to operate within the framework of an integrated energy policy based on sustainability and equity.
