U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee's Doable Plan To Build Clean Energy Economy~
Written: Apr 23 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: lots of fascinating, exciting info; it's a doable project; short essays
Cons: last chapter dragged on; no resources given
The Bottom Line: For those of you who want to move beyond the doom & gloom of the global warming dialogue (RRedford) 4.5 stars
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| jankp's Full Review: Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks - Apollo's Fire: ... |
With a foreword by former President Bill Clinton, the 2008 book Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy by Congressman Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks is a passionate and ambitious attempt to motivate Americans to become involved in bringing the struggling country into the beckoning light of twenty-first century technology, knowledge and global consciousness. Being concerned about climate change is usually not the only, or indeed first, reason why more and more Americans have begun to make changes in their farming, building, transportation, home energy and buying practices. A great many governors and mayors have seen the light that connects a cleaner environment with a more stable, sustainable economy that is no longer dependent on imported oil from enemies. So have a lot of forward-thinking people, many more than the authors could tell us about.
As they write towards the end of the book, “All the measures we advance in this book can be achieved. Given the rising awareness of our energy insecurity and climate vulnerability, as well as the opportunity for economic renewal that these investments represent, we believe that the necessary policies can be passed into law in the near future. The forces of the status quo will surely fight many a rearguard action, but national demand can overwhelm these pockets of resistance.” There’s not going to be Biblical prophecy happening, folks. Not if we are in the light of new understanding.
Clinton says in his foreword that if there’s anything that can be gleaned from days gone by, it is that ’history is full of themes that repeat themselves, often in the most ironic of ways.’ He fully supports the new Apollo Project for Energy, launched in 2003 I believe, that has thousands of people, businesses and companies in all fifty states ready for lift-off, ready for the government to be engaged like President Kennedy was for the original project.
Each of the ten chapters are introduced by real-life stories by the authors, either of experiences in the White House meeting with President Bush or Vice President Cheney or listening to a Bill Clinton speech, or of opportunities as founding executive director of the Apollo Alliance to meet with community leaders who are rebuilding their communities. I really enjoyed them all and thought they contributed a lot of motivational energy to Apollo’s Fire. I had heard of Majora Carter from the South Bronx who talked at a TED conference and was part of a film, but the rest was enlightening.
CONTENTS
1) A New Apollo Project For Energy
2) Reinventing The Car
3) Waking Up To The New Solar Dawn
4) Energy Efficiency: The Distributed Power of Democracy
5) Reenergizing Our Communities, One Project At A Time
6) Homegrown Energy
7) Sailing in a Sea of Energy
8) Can Coal or Nuclear Be Part of the Solution?
9) What’s It Going To Take?
10) An American Energy Policy
I finished this fairly substantial book feeling confident about America’s future and our opportunity to lead the world into a clean energy economy. Sen. Clinton has already approved of an Apollo-like project and submitted in 2007 a similarly comprehensive clean-energy plan. Inslee and Hendricks kept me fascinated while they analyzed the pros and cons, the rewards and stakes, of different new technologies and introduced us to Americans investing in them. I especially was intrigued to read about Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell passing the Energy Harvest plan in 2000, then the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, which with a wind energy company, a German solar firm, renewables giant Scottish Power’s North American headquarters and millions of his own capital in hybrid drive trains and a “smart“ grid system, he’s created potentially millions of jobs. Sen. Obama doesn’t seem to know about this.
Another entrepreneur I enjoyed reading about was a Nebraskan rancher whose cattle manure helps to fuel an ethanol plant and I’m going to tell my rancher brother about this rancher’s E3 Biosolutions company. Many other states are taking the steps towards a clean energy economy, such as California, New Mexico, New Jersey, Minnesota, Washington and Arizona. We can learn from them all.
The authors kept updating their book as they learned about more research and leadership, which leads to our learning about algae as a promising cellulosic ethanol fuel while it also consumes CO2 emissions in one chapter and in the next about coal gasification and sequestration without mention of algae’s abilities. The last chapter, too, dragged on and on as it extensively summarized points made in Apollo’s Fire. I also wish there had been a resources page in the back for more information from books and the Web, but there are Notes and Acknowledgements.
This is a fascinating book that ends with some examples of e-mails received by the authors on their website (Apollosfire.net). I checked it out, but besides letting you read the first chapter of their book there isn't any reason to go there really.
A clean energy economy is already on its way as Inslee and Hendricks have shown and I couldn’t be happier about it. Hopefully you are as well or will be after reading this book.
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This is a late entry to pambo’s Earth Day write-off. Sorry for being late, Pam! For many more reviews of books about global warming and environmentalism, please see http://www.epinions.com/user-pambo or my own profile for books and documentaries on global warming. Thanks!
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: Jan Peregrine
Location: Lincoln, NE
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Farrah, I'm stunned. Play with the other angels, love.
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