Inslee pushes for clean energy in new book, "Apollo's Fire"

By MATTHEW DALY ASSOCIATED PRESS in the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER  WASHINGTON -- For years, Rep. Jay Inslee has pushed for what he calls a new "Apollo Project" to achieve energy independence. Now the Washington state Democrat has written a book outlining his vision for a clean energy economy he says will combat global warming, help break the country's addiction to oil and create tens of thousands of jobs. With co-author Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, Inslee has written "Apollo's Fire," a passionate argument for the economic shift the authors say is necessary to ease America into a clean-energy revolution. The book, subtitled "Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy," was published last month by Island Press. So far, it is not exactly a best-seller - it was ranked 5,916 on Amazon.com as of Thursday afternoon - but it has attracted some heavyweight support. Former President Clinton wrote the foreword, and actor Robert Redford wrote a glowing blurb. Inslee, of Bainbridge Island, Wash., co-chairs a panel of energy and environment advisers for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. He served in her husband's administration in the mid-1990s. But it is another Democratic president that Inslee invokes in talking about climate change. The future congressman was just 10 when President John F. Kennedy made a 1961 speech vowing to send a man to the moon within a decade. "We can do for energy what Kennedy did for space," Inslee said. "The ice is melting in the Arctic, but the ice is also melting on resistance in Washington, D.C." A self-confessed policy wonk, Inslee said he decided to write a book - his first - because he realized that part of the congressional gridlock on climate change came from a more generalized fear that the problem was too big to solve. "People don't climb mountains because they don't think they can," Inslee said in an interview. "They don't think they can start. People need a vision. This book lays out that vision, but more importantly it tells the story of hundreds of Americans who are developing these technological resources to deal with climate change." Among those portrayed in the book is Felix Kramer, founder of CalCars, a California company that transformed the Toyota Prius into a high-mileage plug-in hybrid. Closer to home, the book spotlights a new biodiesel plant - the nation's largest - near Grays Harbor, Wash. Imperium Renewables says its clean-burning, canola-based fuel can be used in diesel engines alone or in mixtures with petroleum-based diesel. These and other companies represent an economic restructuring that Inslee says has created the greatest opportunity for business innovation since the dawn of the Internet. "The message of our book is there are two kinds of green here - and both are important," Inslee said. The first of course, is the environmental challenge, which Inslee says is becoming more and more apparent as wildfires rip through the West, reservoirs dry up in the Southeast and ice in the Arctic Circle melts. The second kind of green is the economic growth that Inslee says will create jobs while "saving the planet from this environmental emergency." Inslee, who serves on a special House committee investigating climate change, will host a field hearing Friday in Seattle. The hearing, held in conjunction with a conference led by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, will feature Nickels and other mayors, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.