Richard Munson

CORRUPTION IS GROWING IN THE POWER SECTOR as modern technologies challenge monopolies and their outmoded generators. Threatened electric utilities, in turn, gun for taxpayer- and ratepayer-funded subsidies, which they increasingly seek through fraud-filled schemes.

In Power Corrupts: Cleaning Up America’s Biggest Industry, Richard Munson reports on such billion-dollar scandals and reveals how bribery-obtained bailouts have become a drag on the economy, a threat to the rule of law, and a barrier to tackling climate change. To block such racketeering and enhance innovation, Munson calls for increased transparency and ethics in the energy sector.

Power Corrupts shreds the country club camouflage that masks unscrupulous, often illegal, activities in the C‑Suites of many of America’s leading electric utilities. It also describes how utility regulatory commissions evolved from guard dogs into lapdogs. If you are curious about why your utility bills are skyrocketing, read this book!”

— Denis Hayes, CEO, Bullitt Foundation

Power Corrupts documents how for-profit electric utilities have infected government with deceit, fraud, and graft. It is essential reading to understand why our energy system is failing to deliver for American consumers.”

Power Corrupts

Cleaning Up America's Biggest Industry

Available Jun 26 2025
"We desperately need utilities playing a serious role in the clean energy transition; instead, as this richly reported book makes clear, we have too many players pursuing their own interest instead of the public’s. Read it, and then, join us in the fight to seriously regulate these behemoths.”
— Bill McKibben, founder, Third Act
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