In coming weeks, we will be expanding our outreach to broaden this coalition among labor, environmental, community, and faith based groups. We will release an open letter, signed by this coalition, to all presidential candidates, calling for the Apollo Project. We will release a white paper analyzing the job creation and environmental benefits of this effort. We will build strategies to leverage pension fund investments to encourage the growth of new, clean, American technology. And we will begin a field and communications effort, engaging at the state level to use this coalition as a force for progressive change. We hope you will join us as a partner in this effort.

The Apollo Project for energy independence will be bold, to match the scale of the problem. We propose spending 300 billion dollars over ten years to invest in infrastructure, fix incentives and drive non-polluting and energy-saving, American-made technologies into the marketplace. It will be broard based, sharing the benefits of investment widely across the economy, while making sure no single sector bears all the costs. And we should not have to wait. It must be immediate, deploying proven and cost-effective strategies that exist today, not placing all our hopes on long-term research and development.

The Apollo Project will break the myth that the environment and the economy are locked in perpetual conflict! It will create a meaningful role for government acting in the public interest. And, it will create or retain three million good jobs, which are more sustainable and more likely to be union, while making the economy more competitive and more productive.

I’m going to briefly walk you through the structure of the plan. It will support four big themes: energy diversity, high performance building, new manufacturing opportunity, and rebuilding public infrastructure.

To begin with, we must move to increase our energy diversity.

America is neglecting the industries of the future while other nations invest. Wind is the fastest growing energy source, but European producers dominate turbine production. Fuel cells are poised to revolutionize technology, but most come from non-union plants in Canada. In 2000, the Japanese government spend $500 million on photovoltaic cells that make electricity from sunlight, seven times that of the American investment. As a result, US market share has fallen from 90 percent in the small 1980s solar market to 25 percent today as global demand booms. We must provide strong policies and incentives to match European and Japanese commitments. We must invest in improving our base load energy system, ensuring that the best available technology is put to use reducing environmental impacts, and creating good jobs along with reliable and affordable energy and most importantly, protecting workers in the energy sector.

Second, we must promote High Performance Building.

Buildings account for over $250 billion of energy use annually, consuming 65 percent of electricity. The average home emits twice the pollution of the average car. K-12 schools nationwide spend $6 billion a year on energy, and at a time when we are laying off teachers and janitors to cut costs, why aren’t we trimming energy bills as well? An aggressive efficiency plan could reduce energy consumption by 20 to 30 percent by 2020. Savings gained by retrofitting buildings and factories, swapping out boilers and chillers, upgrading lighting and ventilation systems, and investing in skilled maintenance. These are good union jobs in new construction and ongoing operations. With effort, we can substitute good work for wasted energy.

Third, we must invest in domestic manufacturing.

The Apollo Project will convert assembly lines and build demand for everything from clean cars to highly efficient appliances, driving up performance, without driving jobs overseas. Already, new industries are emerging. IBEW workers manufacture solar panels in Tennessee. UAW workers build towers for wind generators, in Louisiana, and Machinists are making fuel cells in California. Increased turnover in the capital stock and new demand for durable goods will drive new production of everything from highly efficient industrial motors to lighting ballasts, to steel, concrete, and building materials. Older plants will especially benefit from new incentives for energy retrofits, as new investment in cogeneration and industrial efficiency provide cheap clean energy, cut emissions, and sink new capital into retaining US plants and good jobs.

As for public infrastructure, we must rebuild our cities.

An Apollo Project will also increase public investments in cities. We’ve neglected our infrastructure to the tune of $2 trillion dollars! There is a backlog of $81 billion dollars in un-met transit needs, subways, high-speed bus lanes, and rail projects that have not been built. At the same time, automobile congestion costs our country $70 billion each year.

Smart infrastructure is a key to energy independence, redirecting money from wasted energy toward needed public services. Expanding transportation options will jumpstart economic development, and increase mobility. Fixing highway congestion and building transit, reduce vehicle miles traveled, cut energy consumption and pollution, and drive more work to union job sites in cities. New investment in water and sewer systems can also save up to 35 percent on energy use in this energy intensive sector, while saving public money and protecting government workers.

In coming weeks, we will be expanding our outreach to broaden this coalition among labor, environmental, community, and faith based groups. We will release an open letter, signed by this coalition, to all presidential candidates, calling for the Apollo Project. We will release a white paper analyzing the job creation and environmental benefits of this effort. We will build strategies to leverage pension fund investments to encourage the growth of new, clean, American technology. And we will begin a field and communications effort, engaging at the state level to use this coalition as a force for progressive change. We hope you will join us as a partner in this effort.

The Apollo Alliance can bring Americans together around a progressive and hopeful agenda of reinvestment. This is the surest form of national security, this is real economic stimulus, and this is a practical, progressive, and no nonsense approach to getting things done. This is the new Apollo Alliance. Please join us.

Excerpted from a speech delivered June 5, 2003 to the Take Back America Conference. See the full version at the Apollo Alliance website.

Bracken Hendricks also has a new book coming out (co-written with Congressman Jay Inslee) called Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy with many fascinating solution ideas that relate to this and other issues. You can read about it at www.ApollosFire.net.