The title of this chapter is “The Generator,” and it works on two levels. There is a literal generator involved in Galt’s torture. And there is the question that has haunted the entire novel: who generates the power that keeps the world running, and what happens when they stop?
Part II opens and the world is worse. Way worse. Wyatt’s oil fields are still burning. The government took over the ruins and created the “Wyatt Reclamation Project.” They staffed it with committees and planners and administrators. After all that effort, the project produces six and a half gallons of oil where Wyatt once produced thousands of barrels. Six and a half gallons. That number just sits there like a punchline to a joke nobody’s laughing at.