Review for Apollo's Fire Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy
by Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks
Foreword by President Bill Clinton

      This is a frustrating book.  The authors are upbeat
with lots of clever ideas, but they are utterly confused.  On
page 90 Representative Inslee has a run-in with Vice
President Dick Cheney.

     “He looked straight at me and his reply had all the
subtlety of being slapped in the face with a flounder.  He
said in a voice dripping with arrogance, “you know what
your trouble is?  You just don’t understand economics.”

     The rest of the book confirms Vice President Cheney’s
opinion.  (Too bad Cheney doesn’t also understand the
long-term consequences of practicing torture and murder.)
      
      The problem with Inslee and Hendricks’ book is they
don’t understand that incentives, tax credits, grants and
subsidies are taken from the same people they think they
are inspiring and guiding.

      Why can’t the public do its own shopping for energy?
Why must they plan for the public?  Why do they hardly
mention the great opportunity of nuclear energy?

      The authors list ten energy enlightenments which
amount to eight pages of high hopes.  Below is a shorter list
I’d have more faith in:

1.        Disband the DOE.
2.        Get rid of all subsidies.
3.        Stiffen and enforce pollution laws.
4.        Take away the privileges of think tanks and non
profit foundations.

      At the close of their book, Inslee and Hendricks affirm
their faith that inventors and entrepreneurs will emerge to
make their dreams come true.

      This inventor is not so sure.


Steve Baer
November 2007