Energy Capitol

Energy Capitol explores the waning of regulatory politics surrounding large-scale energy systems in the United States at the turn of the millennium.

Throughout the twentieth century, large-scale energy systems in North America and Europe were highly regulated by a national political community whose decision-making authority relied on positions of bureaucratic and capitalist-led industry organization. After restructuring in energy markets such as natural gas and electricity during the 1980s, the culture of power surrounding political decision-making began to decline. Against this backdrop, Arthur Mason examines the struggle by oil companies and federal-state agencies to deliver natural gas from Alaska and Canada's Mackenzie Valley to markets in midcontinental United States, highlighting regulatory collusion to advance their plans. Mason employs perspectives from anthropology, political science, sociology, and science and technology studies to analyse ethnographic data gathered at the Alaska State Legislature and in the Office of the Alaska Governor in Washington DC. The focus is primarily on plans for building a $20 billion 3,500-mile pipeline to transport natural gas from the Arctic to midcontinental United States. By illuminating key aspects of federal-state political decision-making processes on energy transportation infrastructure, Mason highlights the activities of economists, lawyers, and other regulatory intellectuals whose accumulated work impedes Arctic proposals through a reliance on judgments that no longer reflect the conditions in which large-scale projects are increasingly determined.

Written by a leading expert in the field, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy policy, environmental politics and governance, and regulation and risk. It will also be relevant to industry professionals working in environmental NGOs and government departments in energy and climate forecasting.