Let's Launch a Clean Energy Apollo Project
The Apollo Alliance was launched in 2003 with the idea that we need a new Apollo mission that, similar to the Apollo moon landing, will restore America's technological leadership in the world and speak directly to the core values we share as Americans: our can-do spirit, our inherent optimism, and our enduring patriotism.
America's new Apollo mission will catalyze a clean energy revolution that will spur domestic job growth, end our reliance on foreign energy sources, curb climate change, and position our nation to thrive in the 21st century.
Forty years ago, Neil Armstrong's short walk on the surface of the moon fulfilled President Kennedy's bold challenge to summon the resources and technical ingenuity needed to win the space race. As we celebrate the anniversary of this historic human achievement, it's important to remember that Kennedy's ambition launched more than just a rocket -- it heralded a new era of job creation, modern businesses, and leading-edge industries that would propel decades of American economic progress.
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.
The strength of this country lies in the extraordinary resolve of our citizens, even in the most trying of times. Americans never shy from a challenge. That resolve is being put to the test by an extremely well-heeled carbon lobby, but we will not waver. 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.
We did it in the 1960s when we landed the first man on the moon. We can do it again now by sparking a clean energy revolution in America so profound that it will touch every quarter of American life.
Follow Phil Angelides on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ApolloAlliance
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NASA should develop solar roof panels for our homes made in America by American workers. I've never seen an orange extention cord running from a lump of coal from Appalachia to the space station.
http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138
END MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL
The Clean Energy Apollo projects are under way. I read a press release last week at:
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Urban-Eco-Electric-1016776.html
It detailed new a way to finance solar panels through a Philadelphia Solar company called Urban Eco Electric
www.go-uee.com
I called them last week and they're going to install a solar system to delivery 100% of my usage with no upfront costs and my payments are less than my current electric bills. The change is coming and it's through innovation, forward looking companies and the customers demanding new and better products.
Fantastic program! This is what the world needs! now that solar is 2$ per watt, it only the financing that's slowing it down. We don't need R&D or NASA, we need the bankers to lend out the money to install rooftop solar.
I was a believer of an Apollo scale clean energy project for several years. However, I recently changed my position due to a greater understanding of the utility structure and energy efficiency.
32% of the CO2 is personal consumption. If we are to achieve our 80% reduction in CO2, we must insist on taking personal action today. Limit every family to 1 auto. Those who commute alone, must move to a motorcycle. Ban all air conditioning. Thermostats in all homes need to be government regulated and set to 66degrees for winter. All homes need to be limited to 5 light bulbs. Families will be allowed only one TV. All businesses and stores will be required to be closed before sundown. Ban all private plans and all private boats. No cars allowed in the cities, only motorcycles.
Yawn. I see an army of strawmen recruited to spread fear. But then, only little children are afraid of the straw in other people's mind.
:-)
The urgent need is an emergency changeover, within a decade, to widespread use of new sources of energy that eliminate the need for fossil fuels. That goal is now in sight.
Several firms, including our own, Chava Energy, are pioneering revolutionary, inexpensive, renewable, energy conversion technology that can yield cost-effective, mass-produced, alternatives in the immediate future. We are developing breakthrough technologies that can turn future cars, trucks and buses into power plants when suitably parked. Such vehicles will be able to pay for themselves over a reasonable period of time by wirelessly transmitting and selling electric power to local utilities.
Who will not want a new car that needs no fuel? Let alone one that is a source of income!
These and other revolutionary new technologies can help to eliminate the need to build new coal burning and conventional nuclear power plants. This is how to regrow the auto industry and the economy.
I call this The Brooklyn Project. It does not wait for government but instead is entrepreneurial. New technology and radical change is needed. See: www.aesopinstitute.org
panacea
elixer
snake oil
smoke and mirrors
it's all junk if it ignores thelaws of thermodynamics
I am not sure what makes people see the Apollo project as a suitable moniker for environmental issues. Apollo was an outcrop of the cold war. It was a way for our nation and the USSR to have a shootout without killing most human life on the planet. The motivations and methods used could not have been more alien to environmental concerns.
And because it was politically motivated, it died even faster than it was conceived, something we definitely do not need... sustainability is something we need to prepare now for the INDEFINITE future. We are not looking at a quick fix that ends in another canceled program and a "Oh, well, wasn't it great as long as it lasted..." sigh or relief.
Please, people, find yourselves a different vehicle to convey the message. This one simply does not float for this purpose.
Just like a scientist or an engineer, you always have to be a stickler for accuracy
Let them have their fun
Judging by the number of posts the article gets... there isn't much fun in this one.
The Apollo project bombed as a public spectacle because the laws of nature forced the second episode of the show to look exactly like the first and the sixth exactly like the second (with minor variations). Now we are shooting the remake and, if you look closely, it still looks exactly the same!
It takes a geek like me to appreciate that. On some level it is amazing that the people who are getting the most out of space are the ones who realize the most how awfully boring it really is.
How many, for instance, have looked at the New Horizon's web site lately?
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
:-)
AB 811 LOANS AND FEED IN TARIFFS are all we need. Why does this take an "Apollo" project? Please don't "touch the quarters of my life" that involve wilderness areas and open spaces being dynamited, bulldozed, paved and industrially developed for Big Solar and Big wind, or the "quarter of my life" that involves tens of thousands of upstanding Americans being forced from our homes via eminent domain to make way for SF6 spewing Big Transmission, ok?
AB 811 LOANS AND FEED IN TARIFFS NOW! We need to improve the built environment, and leave open spaces alone, or it's not "Green," it's "Greenwashed."
It's not technically that hard.
Rooftop solar is already the cheapest electricity at 3 cents per KWH.
The 60B$ the ACES bill would waste on "clean Coal" could buy thin film solar factories capable of provided 100 of power plants worth of solar per year.
1.85 per peak watt! retail!
http://www.atensolar.com/14.html
http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm
see my profile.
Where we could use some innovation is in the BioFuels area, though BioChar, FT and TD all work just great.
What we have is a installation problem.
You are from California right?
Look at any image of L A and explain to me why you have all the light going up at night?
Start directing that light DOWN where it is needed and you can save money!
We can call it Nuclear energy.......!
No, you can't. For one thing... nuclear is all baseload power... and we have enough of that. Unless you want to heat the environment with nuclear power plants freewheeling half the time...
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