Winning Our Energy Independence

By S. David Freeman

WAR. TERRORISM. GLOBAL WARMING. LEAKING NUCLEAR WASTE DUMPS. HIGH OIL PRICES.

We are facing an international energy crisis of unprecedented proportion. The foreign policy of the United States is uncomfortably associated with our dependency on foreign oil. Carbon-based fuels are creating a greenhouse effect that is wreaking havoc around the world. Nuclear power is not only dangerous, but it is also not an economically feasible solution. The earth needs an answer and it needs one fast.

The answer for the energy crisis is in renewable resources. Solar and wind power, ethanol and other biofuels, geothermal energy, hydrogen, and other renewable resources will preserve life as we know it. The United States-indeed, every country in the world-needs to be able to produce, use, and store its own energy. There is no time to delay. The technology exists today to make substantial changes in our energy production and use. Long-time energy insider S. David Freeman challenges the United States and the world to create a high-energy global civilization where each nation has its own homegrown, carbon-free renewable source of energy. It is not a hope or a dream. Freeman explains how the combined action and voice of ordinary people can make a difference and can save the world from destruction.

Freeman has an answer to winning the energy war, and everyone should listen. s. david freeman has had the ear of federal officials since the days of JFK. He helped bring about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Nixon. He headed the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest nuclear program, under Jimmy Carter. From New York to Los Angeles, Freeman has headed agencies and utilities companies, continually working to make utilities more environmentally safe, more efficient, and more cost-friendly to the customer. He authored Energy: The New Era. He has three children and nine grandchildren. He is currently president of the commission overseeing the Port of Los Angeles and lives in neighboring Marina del Rey.

Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that will Recharge America

By Sherry Boschert

A politically polarized America is coming together over a new kind of car-the plug-in hybrid that will save drivers money, reduce pollution, and increase US security by reducing dependence on imported oil.

Plug-in Hybrids points out that, where hydrogen fuel-cell cars won't be ready for decades, the technology for plug-in hybrids exists today. Unlike conventional hybrid cars that can't run without gasoline, plug-in hybrids use gasoline or cheaper, cleaner, domestic electricity-or both. Although plug-in hybrids are not yet for sale, demand for them is widespread, coming from characters across the political spectrum, such as:

Chelsea Sexton, the automotive insider: working for General Motors, Sexton fought attempts to destroy the all-electric EV1 car and describes how car companies are resisting plug-in hybrids-and why they'll make them -anyway.

Felix Kramer and the tech squad: Kramer started a nonprofit organization using the Internet to tap into a small army of engineers who built the first plug-in Prius hybrids.

R. James Woolsey, former CIA director and national security hawk: seeing the end of oil supplies looming, Woolsey is demanding plug-in hybrids to wean us from petroleum.

Cautioning that the oil and auto companies know how to undermine the success of plug-in car programs to protect their interests, the book gives readers tools to ensure that plug-in hybrids get to market-and stay here.

Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming

By Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn

Environmental Defense Fund president Krupp and journalist Horn proffer a business-centric prescription for alleviating climate change, coupling the market force of capitalism with technological innovation and entrepreneurial inventiveness. The authors argue in favor of strict federal carbon caps, which would induce innovators to explore new ways to control carbon dioxide emissions. The book notes the global and historical successes of cap and trade mechanisms, such as the Clean Air Act of 1990. Designed specifically to control sulfur dioxide (which causes acid rain), the Clean Air Act cut emissions 30% more than the law required by providing coal plant operators with a financial incentive to modernize. New technologies that would benefit from such a logical, elegant, market-based approach include one as basic as an Arizona natural gas power plant that vents its smokestack waste into a vast greenhouse, where it nourishes algae used for manufacturing biodiesel, and one as a radical as harnessing the kinetic energy of molecules as a power source. This optimistic book brims with similar ideas, balancing jargon-heavy science with engaging profiles of individuals who are blending business and science in an attempt to save the planet. (Mar.)

Previously Listed Books
Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals	Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America	Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity
The Noble Wilds	The Great Bear Rainforest: Canada's Forgotten Coast	Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
Farewell, My Subaru	Green to Gold	Freedom from Oil
Cutting Your Car Use	Field Notes from a Catastrophe	Environmental Solutions