About this item
In our power-hungry world, all the talk about energy - what's safe and what's risky, what's clean and what's dirty, what's cheap and what's easy - tends to generate more heat than light. What, Julianne Couch wanted to know, is the real story on power production in this country? Approaching the question as a curious consumer, Couch takes us along as she visits nine sites where electrical power is developed from different fuel sources. From a geothermal plant in the Mojave Desert to a nuclear plant in Nebraska, from a Wyoming coal-fired power plant to a Maine tidal-power project, Couch gives us an insider's look at how power is generated, how it affects neighboring landscapes and the people who live and work there, and how each source comes with its own unique complications. The result is an informed, evenhanded discussion of energy production and consumption on the global, national, regional, local, and - most important - personal level. Knowledge is the real power this book imparts, allowing each of us to think beyond the flip of a switch to the real consequences of our energy use. This item is Non-Returnable.
About the Author
Award-winning author Julianne Couch tells complicated stories in simple ways, and when necessary, simple stories in complicated ways. In 2017, her first novel "Along the Sylvan Trail" was published by Wyoming-based Sastrugi Press. Julianne tells the story of a few dozen very realistic characters from 4 to 84 living in the Heartland from Iowa to Wyoming, exploring why some are content where they are, and why others get derailed and find new direction. In 2016, the University of Iowa Press released Julianne's non-fiction book "The Small-Town Midwest: Resilience and Hope in the Twenty-First Century." It was named a Kansas Notable Book by the Kansas Library Association in 2017 and was in inspiration for "Along the Sylvan Trail." Before that, Julianne's energy travelogue, "Traveling the Power Line: From the Mojave Desert to the Bay of Fundy," was released by the University of Nebraska Press, in 2013. It was named a Booklist TOP 10 title on Sustainability. Although Julianne moved to Iowa in 2011 to restore a Victorian home on the Mississippi River, she lived for almost 20 years in Laramie, Wyoming. That's where she was inspired to write "Jukeboxes & Jackalopes: A Wyoming Bar Journey," (Pronghorn Press) visiting 30 of the state's most off-the-beaten-track watering holes. The photographic companion to the book, featuring photos of bars and landscapes by Ronald K. Hansen, was published by the Wyoming State Historical Society in 2009. For more information or to contact Julianne, please visit JulianneCouch.net.
