Apollo's Fire

Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy

Jay Inslee, Bracken Hendricks
Apollo\'s FirePublished: 08/13/2009
Publisher: Island Press
416 p. 6 x 9
Figures.
Manuscript. Index.
ISBN: 9781597266499
Paperback: $19.95
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Also Available: Hardcover, All Ebook Formats, Compact Disk, Large Print



Biographies | Table Of Contents

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy ignited America’s Apollo Project and sparked a revolution in space exploration. Today the New Apollo Energy Project is poised to revolutionize the production of energy and thereby save our planet. The nation that built the world’s most powerful rockets, its most advanced computers, and its most sophisticated life support systems is ready to create the world’s most powerful solar energy systems, its most advanced wind energy turbines, and its most sophisticated hybrid cars. This will result in nothing less than a second American Revolution. Who are the dreamers in California who believe they can use mirrors and liquid metal to wring more electricity from a ray of sunshine than anyone else on earth can?

Who are the innovators who have built a contraption that can turn the energy of a simple wave off the Oregon coast into burnt toast in Idaho? Who are the scientists in Massachusetts who have invented a battery that now runs your hand drill and will soon run your car? Readers will meet them all in this book. They will learn how the new energy economy will grow, the research that is required, and the legislation that must be passed to make the vision a reality.

This is a thoughtful, optimistic book, based on sound facts. No one before has tied together the concepts of economic growth and greenhouse gas reductions with such concrete examples. No one has previously told the real stories of the people who are right now on the front lines of the energy revolution. The co-authors, one a U.S. Congressman who is the primary sponsor of the New Apollo Energy Act, and the other the founder of the Apollo Alliance, have joined their experience, expertise, and passion for a clean energy future to lay out the path to stop global warming and gain energy independence.

 

Biographies

Jay Inslee is a Representative in the United States House of Representatives, representing the First District of the State of Washington, in the Seattle area. He is a recognized leader in Congress on energy issues and is the prime sponsor of the New Apollo Energy Act, a comprehensive plan to build a clean energy economy in America. Congressman Inslee was elected in 1998 and serves on the Energy Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was recently named by Nancy Pelosi to the new House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

 

Bracken Hendricks is a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress and former executive director of the Apollo Alliance, an organization of environmental organizations, businesses, and labor organizations dedicated to building a new energy future for America. Mr. Hendricks formerly served as Special Assistant to the Office of Vice President Al Gore and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration where he worked on the Interagency Climate Change Working Group. He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Urban Planning from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

 

Table Of Contents

Foreword by President Bill Clinton
The First Apollo Project
 
Chapter 1:  A New Apollo Project for Energy
 "Global Warming Comes to the White House - Or Doesn't"
 "Ten Energy Enlightenments"
 
Chapter 2: Reinventing the Car
 "Becoming Mahatma"
 
Chapter 3:  Waking Up to the New Solar Dawn
 "When Energy Markets Go Wrong: Surviving Enron"
 
Chapter 4:  Energy Efficiency: The Distributed Power of Democracy
 "Green-Collar Jobs: From the South Bronx to Oakland"
 
Chapter 5:  Reenergizing Our Communities, One Project at a Time
 "We Don't Need Oil"
 
Chapter 6:  Homegrown Energy
 "Wind Energy: False Starts on the Road to Success"
 
Chapter 7:  Sailing in a Sea of Energy
 "A Mind Opened about Mined Coal"
 
Chapter 8:  Can Coal or Nuclear Be Part of the Solution?
 "The Apollo Alliance: New Coalitions for Change"
 
Chapter 9:  What's It Going to Take?
 "A Tale of Two Presidents"
 
Chapter 10:  An American Energy Policy
 "Placing Our Bets on a New Apollo Project"
 "Lessons of the Mimosa Tree"
 "Stories from the Field"
 
Epilogue: Launching Apollo
Acknowledgments
Notes 
Index
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