Jerome Ringo is president of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of organized labor, environmental, business and civil rights leaders dedicated to freeing the United States of its dependence on foreign oil.
Labor Day marks the beginning of this fall’s political season. According to pollster Stan Greenberg, topping the list of voters concerns this season are Iraq, the economy and energy. With an economic recovery that leaves working people behind and a war taking its toll in American blood and treasure, it’s no wonder that voters are anxious. Given these concerns, investing in energy independence makes good politics as well as good policy.
Pennsylvania’s Gov. Ed Rendell gets it. Pennsylvania recently became the leading consumer of renewable energy in the nation. Rendell has made his state a leader in capturing the clean energy markets of the future by raising Pennsylvania’s green electricity use to 20 percent.
The environmental benefits of Pennsylvania’s renewable energy program are clear—wind and hydroelectric energy are produced with absolutely no emissions in the air. Economically, money that would be sent out of state for energy production can be kept in Pennsylvania, benefiting businesses already there or attracting new businesses to the state and creating jobs.
Pennsylvania stands to gain good jobs in wind power manufacturing, construction and operations. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a project of the U.S. Department of Energy, Pennsylvania’s alternative energy program will create an estimated 3,500 jobs and $2.5 billion in increased earnings.
Our nation’s leaders should follow Gov. Rendell’s example. By making a bold commitment now to energy independence, we would cut our dependence on foreign energy—reducing chances we'd ever fight another ugly war in the Middle East—and create millions of good-paying jobs here at home that could never be shipped abroad.
In 1962, John F. Kennedy challenged our "can do" nation to land a man on the moon. Today’s aspiring leaders should commit to a new Apollo program that would free America from its addiction to fossil fuels and create 3 million clean energy jobs in the process.
By investing just $30 billion per year over the next 10 years—a pittance when you consider what we'll spend on the Iraq war—America could:
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Develop advanced-technology vehicles and alternative fuels that would cut oil use by the equivalent of 40 percent of total imports in 20 years. We could deploy ethanol fuel pumps at 10 percent of gas stations across the country, giving motorists a choice other than gasoline should oil companies attempt to profit off tight oil supplies.
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Build enough wind, solar, geothermal and other alternative power sources to supply 25 percent of our needs in just 20 years. Already wind power is cost-competitive with coal and natural gas. With mass deployment of these clean technologies, costs would come down even further.
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Save energy and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, including in inner-city communities, by weatherizing state and local government buildings and equipping them with energy-efficient lighting and temperature-control equipment.
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Build high-performance cities by investing in transit, such as light rail and buses, and by rewarding “infill” development that restores blighted neighborhoods and puts abandoned factory sites back to work.
Once upon a time, our nation's leaders focused on solutions to the great challenges of the day. Teddy Roosevelt fought the robber barons. Franklin Roosevelt stopped the Great Depression then prevailed in World War II. Yet today, leadership from those in charge in Washington is woefully lacking.
This fall, voters will be hungry for solutions—to our security, economic and energy challenges. The victory, we predict, will go to those who make a bold commitment to energy independence.
