Customer Reviews

Alternative Energy: Political, Economic, and Social Feasibility

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This book was very interesting. It outlines the environments in which laws and energy-governing bodies are made and how they are changed, created, etc. The book shows the different kinds of policies which exist, the history of energy policy in the U.S., difference between bottom-up and top-down policy, and more. It also has separate chapters on each of the different major kinds of renewable alternative energy: solar, wind, geothermal. The author(s) obviously know tons about all of these subjects and related subjects. The book is FULL of citations (which shows they did research and it's not all just conjecture) and refers to related books for further reading. In-line website address citations can be annoying in the text, but still could never detract from the wealth of information in this book. I will strongly suggest anyone to read this book. Now I don't have to say "there should be a law about this" or "why doesn't the government do something about this" because now I know why! In addition, the book was written within the last few years, so it is fairly up-to-date (this review written Jan 5th 2009). When I rented this book, I set out to learn about wind and solar, but ended up learning about wind, solar, energy policy, social concerns, risk assessment, and tons more.

"Alternative Energy: Political, Economic, & Social Feasibility" provided me with a great resource for me as a beginning renewable resource student. Reading the text prepared me thoroughly for my professors' lectures.

The book emphasized on rules, policies, and politics that made the world rethink about our current energy sources. It talked about alternatives energy in a way that other alternative energy book would not discuss such as politics and the policies that effect our current energy sources. The author's main alternative energy sources are wind, geothermal and solar energy. There were many subjects that the author evaluates thoroughly, such as the benefits and detrimental effects of staying with our current energy sources. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in this subject.