Current Revolution: Transforming America’s Electric Grid

Many utility customers want cheap, clean, renewable energy instead of reliance on fossil fuels. But Wall Street loves making money, escalating prices reluctantly paid by ordinary consumers in order to fund more and more fossil fuel-fed power stations. Filmmaker Roger Sorkin’s Current Revolution: Transforming America’s Electric Grid focuses on the obvious market tension: people want to go in a new direction, but an entrenched, deep-pocketed power industry resists change (unless it can figure out how to profit from change while crushing upstart competitors). The documentary looks at the state of Georgia as an example of the clash of old and new, as well as what is involved in realigning crucial relationships between utilities and power-dependent businesses such as commercial transportation. The political reach of the fossil fuel industry sparks outrage in some who are drawn to alternative energy options, particularly those who discover that investing in solar panels for their homes is hampered by rules that blatantly favor existing power companies. Current Revolution can be a little dry and insular at times, but its suggestion that a generational change is coming to meet the challenges of a crashing environment is encouraging. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)