I picked up The Power Surge hoping to learn more about the divisions between renewable energy development and the oil and natural gas industries. Could their differences be bridged? Is progress possible with an “all or nothing” approach?

What I learned, instead, is just how quickly energy production in the United States has been changing. 

Since the book was published in 2013, more electric and partial-zero-emission vehicles are on American roads than Michael Levi could have imagined. Coal has been cut drastically. The US now produces almost all the natural gas it consumes. Oil imports are down. And solar and wind power has grown at an astounding rate. 

The timeline for technological innovations has been compressed as interest in climate-friendly energy solutions has surged. The Green New Deal bumped climate change to the middle of the political stage and the American consciousness. 

Even if The Power Surge didn’t anticipate the details of these transitions, Levi knew change was afoot. He described the early 2010s as revolutionary, writing that “everything we once knew about American energy seems to be changing.” He also knew that our understanding of energy was likely to continue to change rapidly. 

For all the changes, however, one thing has remained constant. The political divisions highlighted in The Power Surge are even more stark today than they were in 2013. 

Former president Trump was met with enthusiastic support from his base when he suggested resurrecting coal–one of the worst energy sources for the environment. On the other side, the movement towards renewables is gaining astounding momentum with some of the biggest offshore wind bills ever being passed in several states. Support for the Green New Deal has grown but so has support for expanding fossil fuels. Levi was optimistic that people could overcome their differences if they recognized their common goals. Unfortunately, the chasm has only deepened.

Many of the interviews in The Power Surge illustrate these divisions, but Levi’s positive conclusions often seem unrealistic. 

One story in particular illustrates these divisions: Two Ohio dairy farmers, Bill Dix and Warren Taylor, adamantly disagreed on whether or not local fracking was a good idea. Dix felt that people were struggling to survive and that seeing a couple of rigs on their Sunday night drive shouldn’t be much of an issue if money was getting into their wallets. Taylor had experienced environmental pollution first hand when the value of his corn fields was decimated by strip mining on a neighboring property. Both agreed, however, that the way in which companies were moving into their area was dangerous. How the state regulated the environmental safety of the fracking activity and whether or not communities’ voices were respected were more important to them than the presence or absence of the fracking itself. Levi felt that these commonalities could help them work together to solve this issue. However, acknowledging similarities doesn’t magically resolve differences.

America’s political divisions are deeply entrenched and–despite the optimism of The Power Surge–not likely to be easily overcome. But this book should be read. It shows us just how far we’ve come and that America’s energy landscape will continue changing in ways we can’t imagine.

Even if finding common ground won’t erase the political divide, perhaps it can make us more compassionate as we push for the outcome we feel is right.