JUICE: Diminishing Returns

We here at Circuit get first dibs on many of the new energy-related books for review. We read them, at least the first 50 pages, then often yawn, and pass them on to our nieces and nephews because they are basic and personal. We look for high-level policy non-fiction. The book reviewed in this column comes with not only a pedigree but some real policy substance. Apollos’s Fire, by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Center for American Progress senior fellow Bracken Hendricks, sets forth the basic premise that we should invest in renewable energy the way the Kennedy administration invested in the Apollo Project to put a man on the moon. President Bill Clinton lent his imprimatur to the book with his introduction. He called Inslee’s and Hendricks’ ideas “capitalism with a conscience.” The authors insist that the U.S. apply this country’s brain power today like it did to launch the Apollo rocket ship. That is the only way we’ll meaningfully change the way we use energy, alter the kinds of power we use, and manage our dwindling economic resources. They support their case by reciting topics Circuit readers know well, but with depth. Take democracy and fossil fuels. “The price of oil and the pace of freedom always move in opposite directions,” they write, quoting New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. They cite terrorism, the link between fossil fuels and war(s) in the Middle East, and dictatorships. All place worldwide costs on the U.S. economy, climate change, and the global environment. While the authors come off as informed, their numbers are a little squirrelly. For instance, they say that Kennedy’s Apollo program cost the nation about $18 billion in adjusted dollars, while the current federal energy budget is $3 billion. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the 2005 Energy Policy Act will cost $35.9 billion by 2010. The energy bill under consideration this week by Congress appears to add at least $20 billion more to that. There are a few more places where the numbers appear skewed to favor the author’s pet projects--like plug-in hybrids. The book also provides more than enough sweet but insufferable (to this reviewer) vignettes. I suspect they are added to make the reading more accessible to a wide audience, but it makes a high-level reader, like you and me, crazy because of its blatant pandering. Still, I enjoyed the ride through the book. They write about scenes I don’t remember--like when there were photovoltaics on the White House roof until President Ronald Reagan had them removed. Now, the authors, backed by top level federal lawmakers, are leading the charge to make Washington D.C. buildings somewhat greener. The “New Apollo Project” called for by the authors would involve the government investing more than $300 billion to develop non-fossil fuels, efficiency, and slash greenhouse gas impacts. They predict it would result in $1.3 trillion in gross national product gains and produce 3.3 million jobs. After watching the government undermine itself on progressive energy policy for the last 25 years, I can only keep my fingers crossed with the next administration. We have to invest at the national level like the state of California has been doing locally. Otherwise, the next generation, is, well, “To the moon, Alice.”

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JUICE: Diminishing Returns

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