Also, from the Des Moines Register this morning.

Lyle Krewson

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Columnists

Basu: Use wind, sun to propel America forward
By REKHA BASU
Register Columnist
10/22/2003
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Most of the plans you hear these days for America's future involve undoing
damage.

The damage done by free-trade agreements and the flight of capital and jobs
overseas. The damage from unemployment, a sour economy, rising health costs
and premiums, shredded safety nets. Environmental degradation, Enron,
WorldCom, the collapse of California's energy system, Iowa's declining rural
population and all of its ripple effects on tax bases and school closings.

Administrations of both parties have contributed to the crises. Corporate
greed, aided by loopholes and lax oversight and the events of Sept. 11, have
played their share.

But no matter who wins the presidential election or what remedial measures
are taken (canceling NAFTA, for instance), Americans need more to hang their
hopes on than the prospect of simply cleaning up messes. We need bigger
dreams.

Into this solemn picture last week came a coalition of Iowa labor,
environmental and farm leaders to kick off an ambitious campaign called the
New Apollo Project. The plan is to develop new energy technologies that
would create a fleet of manufacturing jobs, revitalize the environment,
reduce pollution and our dependence on foreign oil. All of it would put Iowa
in center stage.

America could do this, say proponents, by investing in alternative sources
of clean, renewable energy such as solar and wind power.

It doesn't come cheap. Proponents talk about an initial federal outlay of
$300 billion over 10 years, which is hardly likely to sail through Congress
on the heels of an $87 billion appropriation to rebuild Iraq. But if they're
right, it would result in 3 million new jobs and retraining for laid-off
manufacturing workers.

The plan is spearheaded by a Washington, D.C.-based partnership of
non-profits named the Apollo Alliance.

"Like President John F. Kennedy's Apollo Project, which put a man on the
moon in under a decade, a New Apollo Project for energy freedom will tap our
ingenuity, our collective spirit and our competitive drive to create a
stronger economy and a safer world," says a letter to presidential
candidates. The letter was co-authored by members of the National Catholic
Rural Life Conference, the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church,
the Iowa Farmers Union, the Iowa Renewable Energy Association, Iowa
Environmental Council, two former state senators and several labor unions,
among other groups.

Leaders say the development of computer chips, national highways and space
explorations got their start with massive public investments.

"For just a fraction of the $70 billion America will lose each year to
off-shore tax havens, we can close the growing technology gap between the
U.S. and our economic competitors," says the letter. "New investments in
energy sources such as clean biomass and wind power will not only provide a
much-needed economic stimulus for rural Iowa, they will also result in
greater tax revenues and a lower federal debt."

Too good to be true? Apollo's Iowa field director, Matt Ewing, says no.
America, he says, has gotten strong by "using its ingenuity to push the
curve. . . . This is the time America needs to do what it does best, and
that's to think big."

America invested in inventing the technologies that other countries have
used to surpass us, he says: 90 percent of wind turbines are now produced in
Europe, and Japan's market share of solar panels has doubled to 50 percent.
The investments will pay for themselves and then some, says Ewing, noting
that San Francisco passed solar bonds allowing the city to borrow $100
million to install solar power in schools and government buildings. The
savings in energy costs are expected to pay for the investment. Once the
technology is in place, the private sector gets involved.

A detailed "white paper" is due by Thanksgiving. Ewing's immediate task is
building a grass-roots consensus.

The campaign is focused here because of the presidential caucuses and
because the Midwest is particularly hurting. Iowa has lost 36,000 jobs since
2001, Ewing says. "But the solutions are here, too. Iowa is the
third-largest wind energy producer in the country. We think wind could be
the next cash crop."

Accordingly, the campaign's slogan is: Shift our energy dependence from the
Mideast to the Midwest. It does have a certain ring.

If only there were a single panacea for all the foreign and domestic
problems facing America, the crises in state and local and school budgets.
But this proposal has promise on many fronts. It can lead to creating jobs,
investing in public infrastructure, decentralizing energy networks to
prevent the problems behind the recent multistate blackout, moving toward
energy self-sufficiency and a new basis for foreign policy, free from our
oil dependence. Mostly, it would put America on the cutting edge of
something again.

Unfortunately, there's little political capital in talking about huge
government expenditures right now. That's why the clamor will have to begin
with the public.

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Lyle R. Krewson
Sierra Club Conservation Organizer
6403 Aurora Avenue #3
Des Moines, IA 50322-2862

515/276-8947
515/238-7113 - cel

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