Includes bibliographical references (pages 343-346) and index.

Introduction : the coming energy revolution -- Market forces : the invisible hand ascendant. Micropower: Thomas Edison's dream revived -- Enron vs. Exxon, or, the sleeping giants awaken -- Why California went B.A.N.A.N.A.s -- Oil, the most dangerous addiction -- Environmental pressures : the green dilemma. Welcome to global weirding -- Clearing the air -- Adam Smith meets Rachel Carson -- Energy technology : bigger than the Internet. The future of fuel cells -- Rocket science saves the oil industry -- A renaissance for nuclear power? -- Micropower meets village power -- Epilogue : the future's a gas. A guided tour of a revolution in the making that promises to change our lives. Global warming, rolling outs, massive tanker spills, oil dependence: our profligate ways have doomed us to suffer such tragedies, right? Perhaps, but energy and environment correspondent Vaitheeswaran sees great opportunity in the energy realm today. From corporate boardrooms to think tanks, Vaitheeswaran pursues the people who hold the keys to our future. This book is his look at the economic, political, and technological forces that are reshaping the world's management of energy resources. In it, he documents an energy revolution already underway--a revolution as radical as the communications revolution of the past decades. --From publisher description.