Every industry has its own trade association: from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and the British Air Transport Association, through to the British Association of Fair Trade Shops and the Solar Trade Association. These bodies are set up by companies with a common purpose to help them lobby for their interests.
The Energy Networks Association is responsible for all those companies involved with electricity transmission and gas distribution. Members range from Greenpeace's old friends E.On, through to the National Grid; and last night they invited me to their annual reception, held at City Hall in London.
It was a fascinating experience, from being in the lift with the representatives from Areva and Toshiba (who want to build nuclear power stations) through to arguing about the best way to deliver energy security with the trade association for heavy industry: the Energy Intensive Users Group.
I wish I could report that there was tremendous optimism amongst the party goers; a confident projection of industry professionals who were all focussed on creating a low-carbon energy system. But I can't.
The industry believes the only way to keep the lights on is to build another generation of large wasteful centralised power stations, and to demand nuclear power as the answer the climate change.
They do talk about renewables - and some companies are investing in them - but there is no talk of a complete energy revolution that will actually put us on a path to cut CO2 emissions by the levels we need.
I had a long conversation with one of the most senior managers at pro-nuclear energy company EDF, and he did admit great change was needed. We agreed the change needed to be as dramatic as privatisation was under Margaret Thatcher. But that took 11 years. We need to re-design and decentralise our energy system right now.
Overall, it was all very depressing. Still, the wine was good.
