ANOTHER book on future energy? It鈥檚 a well-worked theme, but Scott Montgomery brings real rigour and independence to this survey. No facile talk about peak oil here: nasty tar sands and shale oils mean we have loads to be going on with, he observes. And you can feel the angst as he admits to being 鈥減art of the generation that experienced deep dread over nuclear power鈥� while now concluding that, in a world where the hazards of billions of tonnes of CO2 emissions must be weighed against those of a few silos of highly radioactive waste, 鈥渄octrinaire opposition to nuclear energy is a reactionary position鈥�.
I will not be the only reader who, as Montgomery himself puts it, 鈥渓aments the lack of a final, integrated picture鈥�. But while he may baulk at offering a final prescription, much of his analysis is magisterial.
The Powers That Be: Global energy for the twenty-first century and beyond
University of Chicago Press