Robert Bryce is author of “Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper,” and many other books and articles about energy. There is a nearly direct relationship between reliable electricity and high living standards, About a billion people have little access to electricity. It’s no coincidence that they are also among the worst educated and the most impoverished. Another very large cohort is held back by intermittent electricity that costs too much. Universal, affordable kilowatts should be a cause for the 21st century. Not far into the future, electricity may be viewed as a human right—essential for a clean, comfortable, materially secure life.