Energy Innovators: Ringing in an Age of Enlightenment

Fortnightly Magazine - December 1999
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Six executives map out the technology, tools, theories and institutions that could change the face of electricity forever.

Liberty is the most important component of enlightenment. Once a person frees themselves ¼ they will not only be on their way to becoming a free thinker themselves, but they will also spread the word to others about the value of attaining enlightenment."

Though Immanuel Kant was writing in 1784 to define his own age of enlightenment, he just as well may have been describing the early results of electric deregulation and the liberty it is giving energy executives to enlighten the industry with new innovations.

Five years ago, the technologies, companies, markets and institutions being developed by the innovators profiled here did not exist and would not have existed had it not been for their determination and enlightened vision of the future of electric competition.

Many historians believe the ideas of the Enlightenment provoked both the American Revolution and the French Revolution. Will the innovators profiled here be the architects of a revolution yet unseen in the electric industry?

The Fortnightly spoke to some of the most innovative people we have come across in the areas of business, technology and policy. - R.S.

Kinder and Morgan - The New Empire Builders

Two former Enron executives begin building a corporate empire that may soon rival that of their former employer.

The founders of Kinder Morgan may never have built the sixth-largest integrated natural gas company in less than five years if Ken Lay, chairman and chief executive officer at Enron, had decided to retire early.

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