Apollo Feedback: What’s America Listening To When It Comes To Energy and the Economy?

“I am really starting to see a grassroots movement towards a change in our energy policy,” writes Chris Hurst of Sonora, California. “People are just not happy with the status quo.”

Bailout, clean energy, new approaches get a hearing

Days the like the ones we’ve experienced of late don’t come very often. Failing institutions. Heated campaigns. Soaring energy prices. The Apollo Alliance’s strategic answer — a long-term clean energy, good jobs economic development strategy — makes more and more sense, according to the Apollo Nation.

About That Massive Debt
I’m really starting to get annoyed that we can invest hundreds of billions in military security, hundreds of billions in financial security but nothing in energy security. Add to it that the massive debt we’re racking up will likely mortgage our national lands. Sometimes it’s hard to see a way out.
Andrew McFarlane
Leelanau County, Michigan

The Bailout
How will the massive bailout of the financial markets affect plans for implementation of new green energy programs? Where will the money come from? Both the Republicans and Democrats in Congress stood by while our economy was being placed in jeopardy by reckless, greedy and irresponsible manipulators. It’s not like they didn’t know, or should not have known, what was happening on Wall Street. The government bails out these robber barons - to the tune of perhaps $1 billion - at the drop of the hat, while Social Security, universal healthcare, and environmental problems go begging.

The government of the United States is broken. Representative government, as presently constituted, can no longer meet the real and pressing needs of the people. Major changes are needed. An unpopular president should be subject to removal. The public must get directly involved in major legislative decisions through the ballot. (Advanced information technology makes this possible.) The sorry state of American politics demands a government, which answers directly to the people on major legislative matters. It is the only way to combat Big Money influence - including the fossil fuel industry - over the executive and legislative branches.

Hope is not enough. We must demand a fair and efficient government that capably and fairly serves the needs of the governed. Another four years of either party will not provide us with the leadership we urgently need. We are approaching the brink of far more serious problems than those we face today. Global warming must be addressed without any further foot-dragging. Resources and ecosystems are being stressed to the breaking point. World population and development are burgeoning. Doesn’t anybody get it? I support your campaign for Green Jobs. I believe it will not be enough.
Larry Stein
Endicott, New York

Outsourcing
What will keep our “green jobs” from being outsourced to China? Corporate greed tends to favor low cost labor, right? Please - answer this question - I believe it vital to the sustainabilty of your program.
Richard D. Wiltse

Connecticut Solar
As with other needs, such as health care, some states are not waiting for the federal government to slip from the grasp of the corporations and big oil. Here in Connecticut, the state has a program called Connecticut Solar Lease whereby 1000 homeowners who, like me, cannot afford the $20,000 or $30,000 up-front costs of photovoltaic cells may qualify for a lease program, the monthly costs of which are more than offset by lower electric bills. I’m very excited about this program, and am looking forward to the installation of photovoltaic cells on the roof of my house soon.
Frank Chisholm
East Lyme, Connecticut

Useful URL
Architecture 2030 has released a new graph, illustrating that, even at peak production in 2030, the US will consume a year’s supply of oil from expanded off-shore drilling in the outer continental shelf in just four days.
Peter Chapman

Economics of Cap and Trade
Cap and trade. That’s what I hope to hear fully discussed during this campaign. There are so many potential ideas and processes poised to contribute to a switch to alternative/renewable energy sources. But they require the economic promise, stability and viability that cap and trade will offer. We’re going to have to endure some high costs during the throes of final years of gas power. But they’ll be bearable if we can see that the cleaner future is en route.
Marylou Nortie

No Drill
I write from Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, a small community of 10,000 halfway between progressive Madison and industrial Milwaukee. Speaking for my group of friends, we are reacting with horrified astonishment that “drill, baby, drill” is getting any traction at all among any but the dullest-witted or hardest-hearted.

We care about biodiversity. We care about the fragile climate situation. We care about future generations so we care enough to drive smaller and slower, keep our thermostats down in winter and up in summer, eat less meat but lots more local products. We care enough about the constitution of the United States to realize that with rights come responsibilities; The Bill of Rights guaranties the pursuit of happiness not the pursuit of oil. It’s time to note the difference. We believe in the credo, more fun, less stuff.

We’d like the candidates to model our belief that sustainable change can have positive social and personal benefits as well as economic and environmental ones. We are hoping to hear the candidates say that drilling in environmentally sensitive areas is a worse solution than modifying our behaviors. We are hoping to hear the candidates say that ending the war in Iraq soon will let us fight foreign oil dependence by freeing up investment dollars for alternative energy sources like wind and solar, geothermal and algae/cellulosic ethanol production. We hope to hear the candidates ensure fair access to training for green jobs, infrastructure development for sustainable transportation and housing.

We want the government to resist Big Oil — not fawningly acquiesce to their agenda. After all, it has resulted in the widest gaps between the rich and poor since the time of the robber barons, an irate and hostile world opinion aimed at the U.S., ill-planned urban and rural sprawl, global warming, and a host of other ills that have weakened our nation.

No to drilling and killing of the environment. Yes to innovation and investment in alternative, sustainable, fair-paying, non-centralized, non-corporatized energy and transportation alternatives.
Beth Gehred
Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin

The Message
I want to give a quick idea/opinion about the struggle to get our citizen’s behind a real radical change in energy policy, including the push to drill. I think that environmentalists/progressives ought to work on simplifying the message. “Drill, Baby, Drill” is the kind of quick, easily memorized, almost hypnotic statement that sways masses. Progressives in energy need to work on the complicated level, and then boil it down for the masses. People are nervous about change, and need to feel reassured when they support something. I know this sounds cynical. I’m not, but I think it’s the way our culture digests new ideas.

So, something like - “Burn, Baby, Burn - Our Planet” “More Drilling, More Global Warming” “Renewable Energy Jobs Last Forever!”

Bumper sticker arguments. But they are true and communicate to everyone - educated or not, barely interested or passionate, English majors or English learners. We have to get pointed on these very important fights.
Susan Drummond

Passive Solar
My wife and I live in a passive solar house built in 1983 with above average (R-24 wall insulation, R-50 ceiling insulation and a two story greenhouse facing South. We are currently looking at photovoltaic roof panels to generate about 4 KW of electricity which should effectively make this house “neutral” regarding use of electricity from coal or other polluting sources.
Bill Abbott
Free Union, Virginia

From Dayton
I live in Dayton, Ohio, just south of the city about five minutes away from the GM Truck plant that is being closed down due to low purchases of trucks as a direct result of the oil crisis. I strongly feel that people in this area have a major concern with a stable job market. Many of these employees were laid off, then called back, then let go of completely. They want stability for their families and finances. I feel that this town is tired of hearing about drilling for more oil. I feel that there is a deeper understanding that green energy companies including manufacturers, suppliers, and contractors offer a better job future in this area where the metal and tool industry as well as the railroads have all been major employers due to the GM and Delphi plants and now offer very little future. Our area needs job security and continual reliance on oil, domestic or foreign, is not going to provide that.
Emily Evans
Dayton, Ohio

From San Diego
I’m 28 and find that the majority of the friends I have in my age group side with the green energy mentality. However, living in San Diego, a city with little to no public transportation, many people are starting to reconsider and are going for the “drill, baby, drill” agenda. Political efforts are focused on trying to dispel the fact that the benefits of drilling won’t be seen for years and that environmental concerns can be addressed while still tapping into these natural resources. When times are tough and need is high, sometimes these kinds of statements can be convincing, which is a shame.

Maybe there’s some truth to these statements buried beneath political agenda. But if we don’t stop depending on oil altogether, when will we ever make the changes and invest the dollars to do so? As far as I’m concerned, we will never make the change if we drill into ANWR and more tax dollars will be lost to the green cause. When are we going to stop chopping at the branches and really uproot the problem from the bottom?

Furthermore, people need to be reminded that there are big buck corporations behind all of this. It seems like the politics behind this situation have distracted some of my friends from the fact that there are companies with dedicated interests involved. Can we really trust that drilling into ANWR is for our benefit, aka the country’s benefit, alone? I doubt that.
Jessica Anderson
San Diego

Friedman Is Right
I do think we’re beyond do no evil and being impartial. Obama wasn’t my first choice when the primaries/caucuses began. But I agree with Tom Friedman, there’s only one green candidate left! I think groups like Apollo need to make this clear to people. Of course having said that, the people reading Apollo probably already know this.
Ryan Tull

Senate Discontent
I am a progressive futurist. I was a NASA brat from 1960 when JFK started NASA and still am in my aging years. My question is what are we going to do about a small group in the US Senate who obviously has enough clout to jam up every progressive/green act/idea, whatever, that gets proposed?

Climate change/global warming are part of nature; we don’t have much time to slow these things down, and these processes are accelerating. How do we deal with the Senate Neanderthal bozos? How do we wake them up? And how soon?
Debbie Dunkle
Orlando, FL

Apollo Moon Shot Veteran
Election rhetoric is a long way from real systemic solutions, not that we don’t have to do it with the same intelligent passion that got us to the moon, as Al Gore so aptly put it a few weeks ago. We need to get off of foreign oil ASAP. I worked on the guidance system that took the first man to the moon safely in the LEM, so I know about engineering that not only “works well under unique and unknown circumstances” but also responds to a stretch goal. I have a commendation for helping keep the Apollo Program on the critical path. We need a leader who can inspire us to greatness with a Congress to match, and one that has a proven track record of decisions born in the crucible of wisdom.

I’ve saved over 2,619 gallons of gasoline by trading in my 6 cyl. Lincoln Continental on a Toyota PRIUS and the carbon footprint is a fraction of that on most cars. The engine is an intermittent Atkinson cycle 4 cylinder engine which never does “heavy lifting”, a fact that is overlooked by all the articles in auto magazines.
The Rt. Rev. James Zinzow

All About Engineers
I really endorse the high level objectives that I see in the New Apollo Program executive summary. I have spent my 42-year engineering career looking at various energy topics and believe that some of your goals are more achievable than others. My expertise includes nuclear, alternatives, and for the last seven years, gasification of waste to produce syngas and liquid fuels. I do not know everything in these fields either (nobody does) but have become reasonably informed on the practical and economic issues.

I have long advocated that it should be far less expensive to “Make It in America” (referring to energy of all types) than to fight wars to protect the imp[ort pipelines. Both political parties have failed this country over the last three decades and only “woke up” to energy independence over the last couple of years. That is because politics is dominated by non-scientists and non-engineers. We can make it here, employ our citizens, and generate a viable economy that doesn’t require aircraft carriers to protect our sup[plies along with the lives of our children. Feeding the foreign energy despots has angered me since the first oil crisis in the 1970s.

How many of your 14 board members are trained and have practiced as engineers? Looking at their affiliations, it seems maybe not very many. While I don’t think engineers can solve all problems, they are critical to addressing issues from a feasibility perspective. And not all engineers are created equal either so you need some engineering “diversity.” But creating an organization such as yours with such important and noble goals requires you have good representation from solid engineering disciplines. The world is too complicated to be run by lawyers! As you may guess, I have some reservations on some of your policies (opposition to drilling) but I commend your goals.
William Quapp
Idaho Falls, Idaho

Inslee Fan
I was very impressed by the coverage that climate change and clean, renewable energy received in so many speeches televised at the Democratic National Convention. Hopefully that attention will continue throughout the campaign.
I feel especially fortunate to be in the Congressional District of Jay Inslee, who is so committed to the New Apollo Project.
Sara Bhakti, Ph.D.
Kirkland, Washington

Comparing Energy Plans
I heard about your New Apollo Program on Thom Hartmann’s show. I wanted to share information about your exciting approach to sustainable energy and jobs with my stock broker, a “red” conservative because his own son is in Annapolis and might see war. But this Red friend of mine is not evil, he just can’t get his brain around how the economy could grow in a different, healthy, non-traditional way. The reds think that any new technology is just so much pixie dust.

I am asking you to please have something on your web page that would be
a succinct explanation of your programs that a conservative would be able
to understand, that some of us would be able to refer them to. I would like to be able to educate this man, and others like him, on how investing in the future is good for the Earth and good for the wallet. Please help me. I am sure many, many people would be enlightened as a result of your efforts.
Lucia Perry
Phoenix

See our New Apollo Program here: http://www.apolloalliance.org/endorseprogram.php

Clean Coal Not
There is no such thing as clean coal, and never will be, and you and I both know that. They mine it by lopping the tops off of mountains and killing everything downstream with the runoff. Then they haul it in pollution-mobiles to power plants. Then they burn it there, spewing out kilotons of CO2, plus a host of other pollutants. The “carbon sequestering” plans are a myth. It, at best, delays the inevitable. Nuclear will never be safe, and offshore drilling attacks the wrong side of the equation.
Scott Peer
Glendale, California

Conservation
As a professional energy manager and long time renewable energy pioneer, I’m dismayed at how the focus or climate change mitigation appears fixated on more “feel good” renewable energy than on proven demand reduction conservation and efficiency. While renewable energy may only provide mid- to long-range relief and still needs fossil fuel backup because wind energy isn’t “dispatchable” meaning it can’t be counted upon when needed most. The only real green energy is that which is never generated, meaning conservation first and foremost should be our investments not renewable energy.

I’ve calculated that if the U.S. is to reduce it’s energy use by 50 percent over ten years from 2,000 trillion btus/yr to 1,000 btus/yr in order to even have a chance at getting climate change under control, we need to cut massive amounts of energy very quickly in order to have any chance at survival. Under this circumstances we need to invest $500 billion in conservation and efficiency over the next 3-5 years and quit thinking renewable energy will save us, because it won’t.

Renewable energy only steals valuable money from cost effective conservation and creates carbon in the manufacturing process. If we are to survive our focus needs to be laser clear. Conservation is our only hope of survival, then efficiency, and eventually maybe renewable energy can offset the fossil fuels later.Without this laser concentration and investment model, the planet will not survive long enough for renewable energy to even kick in.
Mike Mangan

Some Drilling Needed
You are right to be concerned about our energy situation. I agree that we must take drastic measures now. I am not sure though that some drilling won’t help although it is not a major answer at all.
Paul Notari

From Massachusetts
Most people here in Carlisle are choosing “green” or drilling. I hope people everywhere will do the same.
Deanna Stillings
Carlisle, Massachusetts

From Louisiana
As I see it, the people of Louisiana are blinded by the oil-company propaganda. It started with the film, ‘A Louisiana Story’, and it has not stopped. Even now, our Democratic senator is being attacked for not pursuing offshore drilling with enough vigor. Somehow, the people of Louisiana need to be reminded that the dredging of canals, especially MR-GO, and the drilling for oil have led us to the loss of wetlands, which would have protected us in these recent hurricanes. Some know it consciously, almost all know it subconsciously, but it has to be repeated again and again. There’s no reason the truth can’t serve itself of the same Goering adage that repetition leads people to believe.
Robert Desmarais Sullivan
New Orleans

From Austin
I am sitting here wondering how big wind turbines would weather a hurricane. Likely that issue has been addressed somewhere. We are part ofthe long time supporters of Austin’s Green Energy program. Austin has been buying electricity from renewable sources for a lot of years. Austin is also aggressively pursuing more sustainable living in a variety of ways. I myself have been a supporter of wind and solar energy for 20 years.
Marge Wood
Austin, Texas

Join Forces
Keep it up. Why not band together with WeCanSolveIt.Org? Your group and Al Gore’s group are both on the same page. Together, you can force both candidates to get with the program. Obama seems to already be there. Perhaps you can get John McCain to start dispelling allusions and really start to solve some of these problems!
Greg Mango

From California
I live in a relatively conservative area, Sonora California, but I am really starting to see a grassroots movement towards a change in our energy policy. People are just not happy with the status quo, and when I explain the way the system has worked in many ways to block renewable energy, people become downright mad, and rightly so. The problem is that they feel powerless to make any changes. Because I am in the field doing passive solar home construction I see high interest in sustainability and energy efficiency, and it is not just the “tree huggers” who want these types of homes. I have some really unlikely right wing clients. Here I see the true American self sufficiency element in action, many people decide they are going to produce their own energy and have self sufficient lifestyle, and they will go to great effort to achieve this!
Chris Hurst
Sonora, California
www.zeropowerhouse.com

All The Above
Gas isn’t too expensive. It is too cheap, and our friends in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Russia will try to keep it just below the cost of green alternative home grown transportation products, all electric or hybrid. I propose we fix the price of gas at $5-$8 per gallon for the next five years and use the difference to fund the research, development and infrastructure for our alternative energy solutions. We must drill, build new advanced nuclear plants, remove the pollutants from the coal fired exhaust, build wind farms, build new solar and convert cars and trucks to natural gas. There are many small solutions to one great big problem.
Aloha Howard

Thanks
My hat is off to you and the rest at Apollo Alliance! Just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that I always read and enjoy your email newsletters.
Keep up the great work!
David Ruckman
Amissville, Virginia

Pickens Is Right
I agree with T Boone Pickens - do it all. Drill everywhere we can for oil and gas - the drilling technology surpasses the emotional nonsense of strident environmentalists. It will take decades to completely transition from current fossil fuel sources.

Wind Power and photovoltaics are proven technologies - do it.

Food-based ethanol replacement with cellulosic ethanol - do it.

My long-term bets are on Zero Point Energy - Quantum solutions. This solution was discussed on a web site where I used to moderate; check it out. http://forums.truthbook.com/viewtopic.php?t=2484
Chip Keen
Forks, Washington