The Book on Ed

Recently I ran across Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean-Energy Economy, by Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks (Island Press, 2008, though it was actually released in late 2007). The title was intriguing so I picked it up.

Inslee is a congressman from Washington, with a long expertise in energy. Hendricks has a long history of policy work on energy, serving as a special assistant to then Vice President Al Gore. He was also a member of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s Energy Advisory Task Force.

Thus, it is perhaps not surprising to find some very positive mentions of Rendell’s energy work in the book. The longest is in chapter nine, “What’s it Going to Take?” Pages 231 – 237, a section called “From Steel Mills to Windmills: It’s All about the Jobs,” highlights the work done by Rendell, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

Here is an excerpt from pages 232-3:

The governor has created his own political space for moving an energy agenda through a combination of inspiration and vision, and a deft assemblage of constituencies. His vision has been way out ahead of the curve. He announced his Energy Harvest plan in the year 2000. He found a way to articulate how a state that led the world in the age of oil could not lead it into an age of new energy. He did it by investing a huge amount of his personal capital in the campaign, by using concepts like the Ben Franklin Technology Partners to link the history of Pennsylvania with its future. He fulfilled the first responsibility of a leader. He defined a vision.

Governor Rendell also built a political coalition on the self-interests of a multitude of players. He was able to demonstrate to utilities, unions, communities, miners, and investors why it was in their personal interest t buy into this vision. He was fortunate in having a progressive labor leadership that intuitively understood the power of clean energy to build well-paying jobs.

Finally, he understood that he needed successes to build on. He set realistic goals early on in his program, met them, and has now vastly expanded his program; in February 2007 he announced a major expansion of his energy independence initiative designed to save consumers $10 billion over ten years.

The passage also pays tribute to Kathleen McGinty, Secretary of Environmental Protection for the commonwealth. The section moves on to discuss their strategy of recruitment renewable energy companies to set up shop in Pennsylvania. Gamesa (wind turbines), Connergy (solar), and Iberdrolea (private electric utilities). All three located plants or corporate offices here.

The chapters of the book primarily concern various aspects of energy, wind, green-collar jobs, solar, reinventing cars, clean coal, and related subjects. The authors have an agenda, in more ways than one, but it is still nice to see the state getting good publicity.