40-Year Anniversary of Apollo Moon Landing Provokes Calls for a New Clean Energy

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40-Year Anniversary of Apollo Moon Landing Provokes Calls for a New Clean Energy Apollo Program
Last  Monday marked the 40-year anniversary of the historic Apollo moon landing. The Apollo Alliance celebrated President Kennedy's ambitious and successful space program by calling for a new Apollo mission of similar potential and scale. After all, the Apollo Alliance took its name from the original Apollo program, because we believe that the United States should embark on a 21st century Apollo program that applies our country's technological know-how and can-do spirit to the realization of a clean energy revolution.
Apollo Alliance Chairman Phil Angelides wrote about the Apollo anniversary in the Huffington Post:
"Today's efforts to transform the way we power the nation rival the challenge and potential of the 1960s space race. With our economy in tatters, millions of citizens out of work, and a rapidly warming planet, it's time for Americans of all walks of life to unite around clean energy solutions that will create a new generation of good jobs and end our reliance on foreign energy sources once and for all. ...
Four decades ago, America's manufacturers, inventors, investors, scientists and entrepreneurs rose to President Kennedy's challenge and ushered in a prolonged era of U.S.-led scientific innovation. By blazing the path to a clean energy economy, we can reclaim our position as a global scientific leader, save our fragile planet, and put millions of our citizens back to work in the clean energy jobs of the future."
Phil was in good company. Representatives Ed Markey and Henry Waxman, the authors of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, each posted online articles on Monday calling for a clean energy Apollo mission to fight global warming and achieve energy independence.
As we remember the awesome advancements that culminated in the moon landing, let's let it inspire us to keep working harder than ever for a clean energy future that, as Representative Markey put it, "will preserve our planet and grow our economy for generations to come."
The Clean Energy Apollo Revolution is Already In Progress, Say Three State Governors.
This week, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee continued its hearings on a clean energy and climate bill. On Tuesday, Governors Bill Ritter of Colorado, Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Christine Gregoire of Washington testified before the Committee about how their states' clean energy and climate change policies are spurring green job creation.
Gov. Ritter said that Colorado's new energy economy is creating jobs, attracting businesses, and helping lead America toward a more secure energy future. He pointed to one company as an example of the job creation potential of the new energy economy. Vestas, one of the world's largest wind turbine producers, built a wind tower manufacturing plant in Pueblo and a wind blade manufacturing facility in Windsor. It also plans to build two other manufacturing plants in Colorado, employing a total of 2,500 people. Ritter said that the state's clean energy and climate change policies have attracted businesses like Vestas. Colorado has a renewable energy standard that will require 20 percent of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. The state's climate action plan calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
In Washington, Teanaway Solar Reserve recently announced plans to build the largest solar panel energy generation plant in the U.S. in a former coal town called Cle Elum. In her testimony, Gov. Gregoire ticked off a list of clean energy companies that have made their homes in Washington - McKinstry in Seattle, leading the way in green building construction; Inland Empire Oilseeds in Odessa, with a multi-million dollar biofuel plant; and Blue Marble Energy and Bionavitas, both of which are working to turn algae into fuel. She said, "Our energy strategy is a job creation strategy. In 2007, when we adopted a set of climate change goals related to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and reduced fuel use, we also set a goal to triple the number of green jobs we had in the state - to reach 25,000 jobs by 2020. Less than two years later, we can point to 47,000 green jobs right now." Gregoire emphasized that her state is committed not just to creating green jobs, but to ensuring they are high-quality, living-wage jobs.
Gov. Corzine also credited his state's climate and energy policies with creating the demand for a wide array of green jobs in his state. New Jersey has an aggressive renewable energy standard and is part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the first carbon cap and trade program ever implemented in the United States. Thanks to its progressive energy policies, New Jersey trails only California in solar energy installations and is set to build the first offshore windmills off the Atlantic Coast.
"There's great potential here," said Corzine. "But to realize all of this potential, we need national leadership to dedicate the resources necessary to provide the United States and the world with the silver bullets necessary to fully meet the challenges we presently face."
Other Apollo News.
*The Apollo Alliance joined the Breakthrough Institute and more than 100 other organizations, universities, professional associations and student groups in submitting a letter this week, urging the Senate to fully support the Obama administration's "RE-ENERGYSE" initiative. RE-ENERGYSE, which stands for Regaining our ENERGY Science and Engineering Edge, would produce thousands of highly skilled U.S. energy workers and develop a new energy education program at American universities and K-12 schools.

Andrea Buffa
Senior Writer and Policy Associate
Apollo Alliance
If we can put a man on the moon, we can come up with renewable energies to replace all fossil fuels in the 21st century!
Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen/