Sandeep Vaheesan and “Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States”

Join us for a lunch talk with Sandeep Vaheesan, the legal director at the Open Markets Institute. The discussion will be focused on his book “Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States.” Democracy in Power explores how private financial interests controlled America’s energy industry until the 1930s, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal restructured the sector. The government expanded public ownership, most notably through the Tennessee Valley Authority, and introduced rural electric cooperatives, bringing power to millions. Vaheesan’s book traces the rise of publicly governed utilities as lasting alternatives to shareholder control.

In this talk, Vaheesan will examine the bureaucratic challenges and private resistance that shaped the path to accountability in the power sector. He will also offer a forward-looking blueprint for publicly managed decarbonization, drawing crucial lessons from history to guide future energy reform.