Time Magazine
May 26, 2008 What Is a Green-Collar Job, Exactly?
Phil Angelides explains the economic potential of the greening of America's economy to Time
Apollo Alliance Production June 6, 2008 Understanding Green Jobs
Big cities understand green-collar jobs. It’s time that all cities understand green-collar jobs. Apollo President Jerome Ringo introduces the concept to the National Conference of Black Mayors.
Steven P. Long, deputy director of the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of Illinois, examines progress on a crop of miscanthus, a fast-growing plant at the center of the emerging American grass gas industry.
August 26, 2008
Gallon For Gallon Researchers, Industrialists Aim For Huge Clean Fuels Market Farm scientists and industrialists say they are convinced that the middle part of the country is on the brink of a remarkable economic revival based on turning soil, sun, water, and plants into the nation’s primary source of clean, renewable transportation fuels.
When we asked last week whether Apollo could play the role of the pragmatic convenor in the escalating policy debate over energy, the idea was generally greeted favorably. But there were cautions, expressed by those who considered nuclear energy to be a useful bet – despite the price – and others who assert that nukes are a bad idea, period. As is customary, the Apollo Nation expressed itself with wit, depth, and intelligence. Take a look.
The energy crisis, the economic crisis, and the climate crisis have been tied by both presidential campaigns to how America produces and uses energy. The central questions raised by the public, business executives, and elected leaders are what are the costs and consequences of making the transition from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy? And how long will it take the benefits of clean energy to be felt. California provides answers to both.
We’re a tough nation to convince. Is T. Boone Pickens sincere about ending America’s oil addiction, or conveniently spending millions to leverage more billions? Some of us don’t like John McCain’s energy ideas. Others think Barack Obama is foolish. And lurking in the background are concerns about peak oil, food crops used for fuel, and how utilities dominate state Legislatures. This week’s Apollo Feedback has all that and more.
Cities have become magnets for new jobs. Seattle is expected to grow to 680,000 residents and add 84,000 new jobs by 2022. Chicago is building more than 10,000 new units of housing within blocks of its $475 million Millennium Park, near the Lake Michigan shoreline, in neighborhoods that were blighted a decade ago. Knoxville is building a land-conserving, energy efficient new neighborhood of home and businesses along the Tennessee River. These results represent a sane response to the new market trends of the 21st century – high energy prices, high land costs, static family incomes, scarce resources, government deficits, flagging competitiveness, global climate change, and explosive population growth.
Martin Lagina, a northern Michigan petroleum engineer who made a fortune drilling for natural gas, is building a pair of 350-foot tall windmills outside McBain that are capable of generating 2.5 megawatts each, or enough electricity to power roughly 700 homes. The machines, among the largest constructed anywhere in the world, are intended to be the first phase of a $330 million, 60-windmill project on 12,000 acres of Missaukee County farmland. Like T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman who’s become a summer sensation by advocating a switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy, Lagina also sees value in making the switch. The impediments to success in Michigan, though, lie like shards of glass in the project's path.
Suleiman Bughrara, an assistant professor and plant breeder at MSU, sowed a tiny stand of switchgrass two years ago, anticipating intense interest following President George W. Bush’s 2006 State of Union vow to break America’s “addiction” to foreign oil with a new program of research “in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn.” Dr. Bughrara’s hunch turned out to be right on the mark. It is much more efficient, and far less polluting than either oil or corn, to turn the sugars in cellulose, the basic structural material of fast-growing grasses, into ethanol. And once the science is perfected, ethanol for fuel will be had for roughly half the current price of gasoline, and maybe much less.
One of our primary goals here at the Apollo Alliance is to provide a forum for national dialogue about the most important issues confronting America: The weakening condition of our economy, rising global temperatures, and the diminished strength of the American middle class. Each is closely tied to energy supply, use, and price. In this week’s Apollo Feedback, readers put forward more sound ideas about what we ought to do to fix the problem. If you want to join the conversation write to Keith Schneider at keith@apolloalliance.org, and view the other Feedback features here: http://www.apolloalliance.org/apollofeedback.php
This is the third of the three-part Apollo Feedback, prompted by the volume of correspondence about our late June weekly Apollo Update on Senator McCain’s campaign focus on gasoline prices. This Apollo Feedback features dispatches from Maryland, which just passed legislation to establish a Clean Energy Center, several more messages from writers distressed about the power of the oil industry, and a number of expressions of dismay at a perceived nod (though none was intended) to Senator McCain. Part one of Apollo Feedback is here: http://www.apolloalliance.org/shelffeedback.php. Part two is here: http://www.apolloalliance.org/shelffeedback2.php
There’s nothing like talking about the energy proposals of the presidential candidates to get the Apollo Nation motivated. The Apollo Weekly Update the last week of June focused on Senator John McCain’s proposal to end a 26-year ban and drill the outer continental shelf. The Update asked whether the Republican nominee’s focus on high gas prices was a bid to set the message agenda on energy. We received over 250 responses. So many, in fact, that we are publishing the responses in three postings. This is the second in the series. The first is here:
When we focused last week on Senator John McCain’s proposal to end a 26-year ban and drill the outer continental shelf, our readers responded en masse. More than 250 responses arrived here, more than 30,000 words from across the country. So many of you have views that we’re publishing Apollo Feedback as a series of three postings. This is part one.
From San Jose, California, a city that wants its energy consumption to be 100 percent renewable by 2023 to Newark, New Jersey, a city that is committed to building a sustainable economy, big cities are implementing policies and programs with the goal of building a green energy economy.
The Apollo nation is informed about energy. That’s for sure. In response to our question last week, asking what people would do about energy if they were president, we received dozens of proposed fixes. Policy. Practice. Information. Advocacy. Common sense. And, of course, some useful URLs. Take a look.
Newton, Iowa recruited two new wind manufacturing plants in the last year, reflecting the rising gale of new economic development in the Midwest, and in other regions learning how to plug into the wind. Newton’s ability to bypass the familiar tale of a Midwest city facing economic ruin owes a lot, said state authorities, to effective public policy and a nimble state government that anticipated trends in the clean-energy sector, capital markets, and manufacturing technology.
Though the Senate debate on climate change ended abruptly last week, it prompted considerable discussion in the Apollo nation. From ideas about high-speed rail and new high mileage vehicles, to proposals about energy efficiency and conservation, we’re clearly ready for changing how America uses energy. A lot of Americans are thinking about this. Here’s what they told us in the last week:
Apollo President Jerome Ringo brought our clean energy, good jobs message to a prime time national television audience at the
Democratic National Convention.
Invest, Don't Drill
America needs a real, comprehensive solution to America's energy crisis. Tell Congress to invest in clean, renewable energy and homegrown fuels that will create millions of high-quality, green-collar jobs and reduce our dependence on oil.
